rattfta  tK<W 

^^|B\m^ 

KXviVSM^t     *    iS»'  •'  *v*-*\ 

LfA^ll    <•!>,.'      \.'       I?'.'        1          O 


University  of  California. 


OJK 


Alexander  Del  Mar. 


Accessions  No. 


Shelf  No. 


, 

NATURAL    HISTORY 


OP 


SECESSION; 


OR, 


DESPOTISM  AND  DEMOCRACY  AT  NECESSARY, 
ETERNAL,  EXTERMINATING  WAR. 


BY 

THOMAS   SHEPARD   GOODWIN,  A.M. 


"  The  Union  :  it  must  and  shall  be  preserved." 

Andrew  Jackson. 

"  Down  with  the  traitor,  and  up  with  the  stars." 

Vat  ilc  Cry. 


NEW  YORK : 

DERBY      &      MILLER, 

COMMISSION  BOOKSELLERS  AND  PUBLISHERS, 

No.  6  SPRUCE  STREET,  TRIBUNE  BUILDINGS. 

1865. 


•f 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1864,  by 

THOMAS  SHEPARD  GOODWIX, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Maine. 


QUO.     C.     BAWD      t      AVERT, 

•TIREOTYPEB8   AND   PRINTERS, 3  CORKMILL,  BOSTOK. 


PREFACE 


1C  R  R  A.  T  ^ . 

Page  188,  line  2,  for  Indiana  read  Illinois. 

"     303,    "     6,  k'  to  differ  "    or  differ. 

"     303,   "  16,  "  homes  "    6ones. 

"     319,   "  24,  "  Appendix  D  "    Appendix  E. 

"     328,   "  13,  "  wreaking  "    reeking. 


induce  this  class  of  persons  to  cease  their  opposition  to 
the  outrage  committed,  and  even  to  join  in  inflicting  the 
like  annoyance  on  their  neighbors. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  an  unlawful  or  unworthy  aim  to  rid 
this  class  of  the  company  of  some  who  properly  belong 
not  to  its  number;  and  to  do  something  in  the  present 
emergency  of  our  country's  affairs  to  counteract  the  mis 
chievous  action  of  such  of  that  number  as  remain. 

In  ability  for  mischief,  next  superior  to  those  who  have 
no  general  system  and  are  capable  of  comprehending 
none,  stand  the  class  who  reason  fallaciously  or  from  false 
premises  on  matters  of  practical  political  importance.  It 


•*l 


OEO.     C.     RANP      &      ATERT, 
•TBREOTYPEE8    AND    PRINTERS,  3  COBNHItL,  BO8TOM. 


PREFACE. 


SOME  things  to  human  view  are  accidents.  The  place 
they  fill  in  any  general  system  of  things,  and  the  assist 
ance  they  render  in  any  general  process  of  advancement, 
are  not  discernible  to  human  scrutiny. 

To  some  minds  almost  all  things,  except  their  own  in 
dividual  existence,  interests,  and  whims,  are  accidents,  at 
least,  not  to  say  nuisances,  that  ought  to  be  abated. 
They  cry  out  with  the  same  impetuous  vehemence  against 
the  insect  that  disturbs  their  after-dinner  repose,  and 
against  a  league  of  traitors  sworn  to  destroy  the  last  rem 
nant  of  their  country's  government  or  perish  in  the  effort. 

About  an  equal  amount  of  plausible  persuasion  would 
be  required  in  the  case  of  the  insects  or  of  the  traitors,  to 
induce  this  class  of  persons  to  cease  their  opposition  to 
the  outrage  committed,  and  even  to  join  in  inflicting  the 
like  annoyance  on  their  neighbors. 

Perhaps  it  is  not  an  unlawful  or  unworthy  aim  to  rid 
this  class  of  the  company  of  some  who  properly  belong 
not  to  its  number ;  and  to  do  something  in  the  present 
emergency  of  our  country's  affairs  to  counteract  the  mis 
chievous  action  of  such  of  that  number  as  remain. 

In  ability  for  mischief,  next  superior  to  those  who  have 
no  general  system  and  are  capable  of  comprehending 
none,  stand  the  class  who  reason  fallaciously  or  from  false 
premises  on  matters  of  practical  political  importance.  It 


IV  PREFACE. 

is  hoped  that  individuals  of  this  class  will  find  in  the  pres 
ent  treatise  a  fairness,  thoroughness,  and  reliability  of  ar 
gument  which  will  commend  itself  to  their  respect,  and, 
eventually,  to  their  confidence,  so  far  as  they  are  sincere 
searchers  after  truth  that  they  may  act  on  it. 

The  third  and  last  class  with  whom  the  writer  views 
himself  as  dealing  is  composed  of  those  of  greater  or  less 
ability  of  reasoning  and  sincerity  of  heart,  either  within 
or  without  the  boundaries  of  the  loyal  States,  who  have 
become  unconsciously  but  hopelessly  impressed  in  favor 
of  political  sentiments  and  doctrines  inimical  to  the  exist 
ence  and  well-being  of  Popular  Government.  That  this 
class  is  both  prominent  and  numerous  among  us,  every 
day's  inscriptions  on  the  page  of  history  verify.  Of  them 
the  present  writer  asks  no  favor,  no  forbearance.  If  they 
are  to  triumph,  he  consents  to  die;  and  he  does  not  pro 
pose  to  himself  to  go  clown  to  physical  or  political  obliv 
ion  in  silence  or  unavenged. 

But  Popular  Government  is  not  an  accident  in  this 
world's  affairs.  It  entered  prominently  into  the  original 
plan.  From  the  dawn  of  Creation's  morning,  provision 
began  to  be  made  for  its  advent.  An  ancient  prophet  of 
God  divulged  the  time  of  its  coming,  and  declared  that 
"it  should  stand  forever." 

It  is  to  be  not  only  perpetual  but  universal.  All  the 
institutions  of  ancient  monarchy  are  to  be  "broken  in 
pieces  and  consumed  "  before  it.  It  came  not  forth  at  the 
war  of  the  American  Revolution,  to  glitter  for  a  time 
with  delusive  brightness  and  then  go  out  in  the  night  of 
universal  despotism  which  prevailed  before.  It  has  not 
arisen  and  prevailed  on  this  continent  for  three-quarters 
of  a  century,  dispensing  unparalleled  benefits  to  those 
who  have  been  the  subjects  of  its  mild,  munificent  sway,  to 
sink  irrecoverably  before  the  first  infuriate  combination  of 


PREFACE.  V 

home-born  and  foreign  despots  that  should  league  together 
for  its  destruction.  The  world's  great  Governor  lias  not 
brought  forth  this  antidote  for  all  the  ills  of  human  tyran 
ny,  to  bless  the  nations  for  a  little  while,  and  then  become 
extinct  through  the  absence  of  those  qualifications  for 
leadership  which  can  be  acquired  only  in  a  despotic  state 
of  society. 

Such  are  the  convictions  under  which  the  following 
pages  have  been  written ;  and  they  are  presented  to  the 
public,  not  without  belief  that  they  will  contribute  to 
impart  to  others  a  measure  of  the  same  deep-rooted  and 
considerate  faith  in  the  worth,  the  necessity,  the  perpetu 
ity  of  Free  Government  in  which  they  have  been  written, 
and  the  same  calm  purpose  to  sustain  its  institutions,  or 
perish  when  they  fall. 

That  the  present  century  is  one  of  unexampled  advance 
ment  and  celerity  of  progress  in  all  that  pertains  to  the 
more  useful  arts  and  sciences,  is  obvious  to  every  one. 
That  this  advancement  and  accelerated  progress  are  due 
to  the  relaxation  or  abridgment  of  dictatorial  rule,  is  one 
of  those  great  truths  which  are  gradually  making  them 
selves  felt  and  admitted  without  the  puny  aid  of  human 
logic. 

Both  the  celerity  of  general  movement  peculiar  to  the 
present  age,  —  which  leaves  not  time  for  tardy  History  to 
perfect  its  lessons,  —  and  also  the  exigencies  of  the  new 
form  of  civil  govevnment  that  has  arisen  to  fill  the  place 
of  departing  monarchy,  demand  and  justify  the  present 
attempt  to  bring  the  light  of  historical  reflection  to  the 
aid  of  those  on  whom  devolves  the  responsibility  of 
defending,  not  only  our  existing  government,  but  the 
very  governmental  genus  to  which  it  belongs,  from  the 
fierce  and  unportended  perils  that  now  assail  them.  And 
i* 


VI  PREFACE. 

yet  so  brief  and  recent  is  the  period  in  which  historic 
Democracy  is  to  be  found,  that  any  writing  of  reflections 
upon  it  must  needs  approximate  to  the  writing  of  current 
history. 

The  studies  incident  to  preparing  a  previous  and  yet 
unpublished  volume  on  the  Passing  Away  of  Monarchy 
conferred  on  the  present  author  some  preparedness  to 
treat  the  topics  presented  in  the  following  pages.  This 
preparedness  was  augmented  by  thirty  years  alternate 
residence  in  different  sections,  north  and  south,  enabling 
him,  while  familiar  with  the  views  and  mental  habits 
peculiar  to  either  section,  so  far  to  rid  himself  from  the 
controlling  influence  of  these  peculiarities  as  to  be  able 
to  speak  with  historic  fairness  of  them  both. 

The  time  occupied  in  the  production  of  the  following 
pages  was  the  intervals  of  professional  business  during 
the  first  two  and  a  half  years  of  war  for  suppressing  the 
Secession  conspiracy.  The  date  of  writing  is  sometimes 
introduced  for  the  purpose  of  referring  to  events  then 
passed,  in  illustration  of  views  presented. 

During  the  time  which  has  thus  elapsed,  many  of  the 
practical  political  positions  with  which  the  author  set  out, 
and  which  were  then  comparatively  new  and  strange, 
have  been  extensively  adopted  by  the  people  and  put  into 
operation  by  the  government.  While  thus  much  of  the 
novelty  of  the  work  will  have  been  lost,  this  loss  will 
have  been  measurably  compensated  by  the  increased 
appreciation  by  the  public  mind  of  the  importance  of 
the  topics  of  which  it  treats. 

Most  of  the  time  spent  in  the  preparation  of  the  work 
has  been  devoted  to  attaining  the  greatest  degree  of  con 
densation  compatible  with  clearness,  in  order,  as  far  as 


PREFACE.  VII 

practicable,  to  bring  its  contents  within  the  reach  of  that 
large  and  increasing  class  of  men  among  us  whose  habit 
ual  readings  approximate  the  limits  of  telegram. 

That  the  perpetuity  of  domestic  slavery  is  compatible 
with  the  perpetual  coexistence  of  free  government  on  the 
same  soil,  is  an  opinion  that  has  been  very  generally  attrib 
uted  to  the  founders  of  this  government,  as  generally 
entertained  by  the  people  of  the  country,  until  a  recent 
period,  and  is  still  entertained  by  the  great  majority  of 
the  people,  if  we  take  the  whole  country  into  consider 
ation.  By  historical  argument,  and  by  argument  drawn 
from  first  principles,  to  confute  an  opinion  that  is  sustained 
by  so  sage  and  so  universal  authority,  and  in  practical 
politics  to  take  a  position  antagonistic  to  the  principles 
on  which  the  government  of  the  country  has  been  con 
ducted  from  its  origin,  is  thought  to  be  a  matter  of  such 
gravity  as  to  demand  minute,  elaborate  accumulation  in 
the  argument  by  which  that  position  is  sustained. 

"  To  see  ourselves  as  others  see  us,"  implies  the  posses 
sion  of  a  grace  with  which  our  natures  are  so  sparingly 
endowed,  that  producing  an  accurate  portraiture  of  one's 
self,  or  even  of  our  government  and  national  peculiarities, 
is  no  easy  task.  To  the  difficulty  arising  from  this  source, 
add  the  immature  and  undeveloped  state  of  that  type  of 
government  which  is  succeeding  to  the  place  of  decrepid 
and  departing  monarchy,  a  type  of  which  our  own  govern 
ment  is  perhaps  the  only  reliable  specimen,  and  the  result 
ing  accumulation  of  difficulties  may  perhaps  excuse  any 
lack  of  scientific  clearness  of  arrangement  that  appears  in 
the  matter  of  the  following  pages.  It  is  no  ignoble  achiev- 
ment  to  present  well  some  features  of  a  subject  that  still 
remains  too  imperfect  or  obscure  to  be  entirely  grasped, 
or  perfectly  portrayed ;  leaving  it  for  time  and  a  subse 
quent  effort  or  author,  to  finish  what  has  only  been  well 
begun. 


VIII  PREFACE. 

To  the  unliterary  character  of  the  Southern  people,  or 
to  their  modesty,  it  appears  to  be  due,  that  the  religionists 
of  the  North  have  never  enjoyed  to  any  considerable  ex 
tent  the  benefit  of  their  criticism.  The  decision  of  one 
of  their  superior  judges,  to  the  effect  that  a  disbeliever  in 
future  rewards  and  punishments  was  not  competent  to 
testify  in  their  civil  courts,  is  a  true  index  of  a  sentiment 
almost  universally  prevalent  among  them,  different  from 
what  obtains  at  the  North,  and  whicli  has  seldom  been  ex 
pressed. 

In  the  following  pages  the  apparent  ignoring  of  the 
minor  republics  of  the  present  and  former  days,  results, 
partly  from  convenience  in  conducting  the  argument,  and 
partly  from  the  necessity  of  regarding  the  United  States 
as  alone  responsible  for  maintaining  the  cause  of  civil 
Liberty  before  confronting  monarchies,  and  not  from  any 
disposition  to  undervalue  those  bright  but  less  potent 
heralds  of  the  day  of  universal  freedom  from  civil  despo 
tism. 

The  violently  agitated  current  of  passing  events,  with 
the  felt  pressure  of  its  enormous  perils,  must  bring  into 
occasional  use  and  justify  expressions  of  unwonted  energy; 
such  as  would  have  been  objectionable  in  times  of  pro 
longed  quiet,  and  used  respecting  events  of  only  ordinary 
interest,  or  importance.  The  same  circumstances  will  be 
found  to  induce,  if  they  do  not  justify,  a  trifling  expansion 
of  the  English  language,  by  sometimes  making  use  of 
words,  the  admissibility  of  which  rests  on  but  very  recent 
authority. 

That  no  more  time  is  at  his  disposal  for  perfecting  the 
style  and  diction  of  the  volume  is  matter  of  regret  to 

THE  AUTHOR. 


CONTENTS. 


PAOE 


INTRODUCTION, 15 


I. 

Popular  government  succeeding  monarchy  —  The  greatness  and  difficul 
ty  of  the  change  — Basis  of  each  — Sketch  of  the  latter  — Terms  de 
fined —  Antagonism  of  the  two — A  continent  divinely  reserved  for 
the  development  of  free  government,  .  *  ...  19 

II. 

Preparation  and  transfer  of  the  people  who  were  to  inhabit  the  continent 
reserved  for  free  government,  . 23 


III. 

Two  permanent  settlements  on  this  continent— The  difference  of  charac 
ter  pertaining  to  the  people  of  each,  and  the  necessary  results  of  this 
difference, 26 

IV. 

Claim  of  the  North  to  being  considered  democratic — Its  validity  and 
limit, 30 

V. 

Claims  of  the  South  to  being  considered  democratic  examined,  and  found 
to  have  been  sincere  at  first,  but  now  false  in  the  extreme,  .  .  35 

VI. 

Cause  of  the  Southern  lapse  from  democracy  back  to  despotism  —  Imper 
fect  light  with  which  the  national  constitution  was  adopted,  .  .  40 

IX 


X  CONTENTS. 

VII. 

Views  with  which  the  constitution  was  adopted— What  that  instrument 
did,  and  what  it  did  not  do  for  slavery, 45 

VIII 

The  Constitution  adopted— Slavery  abolished  in  the  Northern  States 

From  what  influences,  and  with  what  results,  .          .          .          .48 

IX. 

Causes  which  operated  against  the  abolishing  of  slavery  in  the  South  — 
An  aristocratic  class  always  existed  there  — Climate  made  the  negroes 
thrive  —  Few  whites  had  the  intelligence  to  understand,  or  the  energy 
to  assert,  their  rights, 53 


X. 

Causes  of  the  non-abolishment  of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States  contin 
ued—The  enervation  of  the  whites  — The  richness  of  soil  — The  great 
number  of  negroes  —  The  poor  whites  acquire  a  love  of  idleness  —  The 
social  influence  of  the  negroes  degrades  and  despotizes  the  whole 
white  community,  .........  59 

XI. 

The  effect  of  slavery  to  countervail  the  progress  and  perfecting  of  the 
principles  of  free  government  in  the  Southern  States,  even  among 
those  who  held  their  slaves  at  first  unwillingly,  .  .  .  GG 

XII. 

Conditions  which  so  modify  slavery  as  to  abate  its  influence  in  counter 
acting  the  progress  of  free  principles,  ......  70 


XIII. 

The  gradual  departure  of  those  conditions  which  rendered  African  sla 
very  in  America  mild  in  character  and  slight  in  influence  during  the  first 
century  or  more  of  its  existence,  75 

XIV. 

The  ultimate,  positive,  and  efficient,  action  of  slave-holding  In  radically 
converting  the  sentiments  of  the  Southern  people  back  from  democ 
racy  to  despotism, •  .  80 


CONTENTS. 


XV. 

Argument  defined,  and  forces  pointed  out  as  they  appear  in  history ,  which 
forces  have  formed  and  stimulated  our  Southern  brethren  to  their  pres 
ent  onslaught  on  all  democracy, 86 

XVI. 

The  above-defined  argument  presented  in  detail  — The  moulding  pressure 
continually  resting  on  those  who  feel  themselves  responsible  for  the 
preservation  of  quiet  in  the  Slave  States  — Its  effect,  ...  90 

XVII. 

Intensity  of  the  antagonism  between  the  principles  of  free  government 
and  the  principles  on  which  slaves  are  governed  —  The  latter  analyzed 
—  The  precept— The  penalty  — Checks  on  the  latter,  .  97 

XVIII. 

The  above  analysis  concluded  —  Checks  on  severe  penalties  —  Benevo 
lence  of  the  master  —  These  checks  limited  and  reversed  by  State  ne 
cessities— Results,  102 

XIX. 

Results  of  above  analysis  recapitulated  and  applied,      .         .         .         .108 

XX. 

Peculiar  qualities  conferred  on  the  master  of  slaves  by  his  position- 
Practical  display  of  these  qualities,  113 

XXI. 

Other  traits  of  character  conferred  by  his  position  on  the  slave-master, 
fitting  him  for  war ;  and  displayed  by  his  class  in  the  present  contest,  .  119 

XXII. 

The  fallacy  of  supposing  that  distinctions  of  color  can  constitute  any  per 
manent  limit  to  the  despotic  exercise  of  authority  or  greed  for  power 
on  the  part  of  slave-masters,  .....  .  125 

XXIII. 

Recapitulation— The  several  ways  in  which  slavery  acts,  to  reconvert 
masters  from  democracy  to  despotism,  and  to  confer  on  them  warlike 
qualities,  . .134 


XII  CONTENTS. 

XXIV. 

Antagonism  of  despotism  and  democracy  overt  and  tangible  —  Military 
organization  and  action  perfectly  natural  and  healthful  to  a  despotism, 
but  difficult  and  destructive  to  a  democracy, 138 

XXV. 

Same  general  subject  continued  —  The  poor  whites  of  a  slave-holding 
community  equivalent  to  a  standing  army,  when  contrasted  with  the 
destitution  of  combatants  which  marks  a  democracy,  .  .  .143 

XXVI. 

View  of  the  altered  condition  of  affairs  in  1860,  compared  with  1789  — 
Was  the  present  precipitation  of  hostilities  necessary?  —  As  viewed  by 
Northern  men,  it  was  not— As  viewed  by  Southern  men,  it  was,  .  .  H8 

XXVII. 

Leading  Southerners  determine  to  divide  the  Union  —  Thirty  years  spent 
in  maturing  and  preparing  to  execute  the  determination  —  Steps  taken 
to  that  end, 152 

XXVIII. 

Origin  and  object  of  the  pro-Southern  political  party  under  Jackson,       .     168 

XXIX. 

The  characteristic  principles  of  Jackson's  political  party,       .  .    163 

XXX. 

Some  of  the  modes  in  which  these  principles  operated,  .         .         .167 

XXXI. 

Results  of  the  operation  of  the  above-named  principles,         .         .         .175 

XXXII. 

The  prostration  resulting  to  a  patriotic  minority,  from  the  usurpation  of  a 
despotic  few,  controlling  a  majority, 180 

XXXIII. 

How  the  Jackson-Buchanan  party  became  identified  with  Secession,        .    185 


CONTENTS.  XHI 

XXXIV. 

Recapitulation  of  the  part  performed  by  the  Jackson-Buchanan  party  in 
bringing  about  the  present  war,      . 193 

XXXV. 

The  abolitionists, 199 

XXXVI. 

Mischievous  diversity  of  views  as  held,  North  and  South,  respecting  the 
abolitionists, 205 

XXXVII. 

The  despotic  class  in  Europe  identified  with  the  despots  of  America  in  the 
existing  onslaught  to  destroy  democracy 212 

XXXVIII. 

The  extent  and  efficiency  of  European  cooperation  with  American  trea- 


219 


XXXIX. 

Rome  and  the  Rebellion, 225 

XL. 

Rome  and  the  Rebellion  — France,  Austria,  and  England  at  a  game  in 
Mexico, 241 

XLI. 
General  Resume,  .  217 

XLII. 

Sketch  of  events  initiating  the  revolt 251 

XLIII. 

Separation  of  the  despotic  from  the  democratic  elements  in  the  long- 
dominant  party  —  Conditions  of  peace,  .....    258 

XLIV. 

Conditions  indispensable  to  peace,  and  progress  toward  their  attainment,   261 


XIV  CONTEXTS. 


XLV. 

The  state  of  the  Southern  masses— The  demonstrated  aim  of  their 
leaders  — Inevitable  results  of  separation, 270 

XLVI. 

Concluding  reflections  —  The  contemplated  cost  of  the  Rebellion— The 
aim  this  cost  was  fitted  to  subserve  —  Bight-minded  men  at  fault  — 
The  no-punishment  class — Abuse  of  the  term  democratic — Disjoint 
ing  the  Southern  masses  from  thtir  despotic  leaders,  .  .  .  276 

XLVII. 

Concluding  reflections  —  The  democrat  and  despot  diverse  —  Grades  of 
despotism  —  Developments  of  —  Democracy  spontaneous  in  its  spread — 
If  it  develops  in  the  South,  its  triumph  universal  —  Contrast  of  admin 
istrations  —  Delinquency  of  the  old  whig  statesmen  —  Final  success,  .  290 


APPENDIX  A, 305 

APPENDIX  B, 306 

APPENDIX  C, 307 

APPENDIX  D, 311 

APPENDIX  E, 312 

APPENDIX  F, 314 

APPENDIX  G, 325 


INTRODUCTION. 


A  KING  of  ancient  Babylon,  during  a  recess  in  the 
expeditions  of  his  conquering  armies,  and  with  the  known 
world  almost  entirely  subjected  to  his  sway,  was  meditat 
ing  on  the  perpetuity  of  his  dynasty,  and  disposed  to 
ask,  "What  should  be  thereafter?  "  This  inquiring  dispo 
sition  of  the  king,  the  God  of  Heaven  was  pleased  to 
gratify. 

Language  is  always  changing  to  adapt  itself  to  the 
events,  the  minds,  and  modes  of  thought  peculiar  to  each 
varying  age.  Hence  it  is  always  lame  in  describing  future 
events.  And  as  the  matter  to  be  communicated  was  of 
importance  to  those  who  should  live  by  several  thousand 
years  remote  from  the  peculiarities  of  the  then  current 
age,  an  allegorical  image  was  presented  in  a  dream,  to 
convey  the  desired  intelligence.  "Its  brightness  was 
excellent,  and  the  form  thereof  terrible.  Its  head  was  of 
fine  gold ;  its  chest  and  arms  of  silver ;  its  belly  and 
thighs  of  brass ;  its  legs  of  iron ;  and  its  feet  part  of  iron 
and  part  of  clay.  A  stone  was  cut  out  without  hands, 
which  smote  the  image  on  its  feet,  and  brake  them  to 
pieces.  Then  was  the  iron,  the  clay,  the  brass,  the  silver, 
and  the  gold,  broken  in  pieces  together,  and  became  like 
the  chaff  of  the  summer  threshing-floor,  and  the  wind 
carried  them  away  that  no  place  was  found  for  them  ;  and 
the  stone  that  smote  the  image  became  a  great  mountain, 

and  filled  the  whole  earth." 

xv 


XVI  INTRODUCTION. 

A  faithful  prophet  of  God  was  near,  who  explained  the 
head  of  gold  to  represent  the  king's  own  Babylonish 
empire ;  the  chest  and  arms  of  silver  to  represent  the 
Medo-Persian  empire,  which  succeeded  it ;  the  next  section 
of  brass  to  represent  the  Macedonian  empire  which  suc 
ceeded  the  Medo-Persian ;  and  the  legs  of  iron  he  inter 
preted  to  represent  the  base  military  strength  of  the 
Roman  empire.  Thus  we  have  presented  the  whole  of 
historic  monarchy,  practically  complete,  and  left  standing 
on  its  conglomerate  feet  and  toes,  which  appear  to  repre 
sent  the  modern  kingdoms  of  Europe  and  Western  Asia, 
into  which  the  dual  Roman  empire  dwindled  down ; 
when,  suddenly,  a  principle,  antagonistic  to  all  monarchy, 
developed  itself  without  human  design  or  shaping,  smote 
the  hoary  structure  on  its  feet,  and  the  whole  historic 
embodiment  crumbled,  became  contemptible,  and  passed 
practically  out  of  existence. 

While  monarchy  remains  anywhere  extant  and  domi 
nant,  those  ancient  empires,  though  long  since  passed 
from  the  plane  of  physical  existence,  still  stand,  to  uphold 
the  prestige  of  their  kind,  and  send  a  powerful  sanction 
from  the  distant  past,  and  a  moulding  influence,  to  fashion 
and  sustain  the  latest  and  feeblest  of  their  degenerate 
progeny.  But  when  the  impinging  force  of  a  developed 
form  and  principle,  hostile  to  all  monarchy,  breaks  in 
pieces  the  only  remaining  representatives  of  that  kind  of 
government,  then,  not  only  the  conglomerate  residuum 
impinged  upon,  but  the  ancient  and  perfect,  and  yet  influ 
ential  specimens  of  the  order  may  with  propriety  be  said 
to  break  and  crumble  together ;  and,  as  a  class  and  kind 
of  government,  to  become  powerless  and  contemptible  as 
chaflf,  while  their  newly-developed  antagonist  enlarges,  to 
lil I  their  place.  This  antagonist  can  be  no  other  than  our 
American  self-government ;  and  dates  and  numbers  accom- 


INTRODUCTION.  XVII 

panying  the  prophetic  declaration  of  its  universal  spread, 
as  well  as  the  marked  character  of  recent  national 
changes  in  every  part  of  the  world,  point  to  about  the 
present  century  as  the  time  of  its  gradual  establishment 
and  spread.* 

Though  the  above  views  of  prophecy  suggest  the 
arrangement  of  the  matter  which  the  following  pages 
contain,  it  is  only  the  historic  verity  of  what  is  here  taken 
into  view  that  is  relied  on  in  support  of  any  of  the  con 
clusions  thought  to  be  maintained. 


*  See  Lectures  on  Prophecy,  by  George  Junkin,  D.  D.  Carter.  Phila 
delphia:  1844.  To  these  Lectures  the  writer  listened  while  an  undergrad 
uate  of  Miami  University,  over  which  institution  Dr.  Junkin  at  that  time 
presided. 

2* 


]J  li  IJ  A  \l  V 

U  XI  V.KKSIT  V    <>K 

rALll'XMtXlA. 


NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION, 


I. 

POPULAR  GOVERNMENT  SUCCEEDING  MONARCHY  —  THE  GREAT 
NESS  AND  DIFFICULTY  OF  THE  CHANGE  —  BASIS  OF  EACH 
—  SKETCH  OF  THE  LATTER  —  TERMS  DEFINED  —  ANTAGO 
NISM  OF  THE  TWO — A  CONTINENT  DIVINELY  RESERVED  FOR 
THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  FREE  GOVERNMENT. 

THE  greatest  secular  event  of  this  or  of  any 
other  age,  is  the  transfer  of  the  reins  of  civil 
power  to  the  many,  from  the  few. 

Among  the  strangest  capabilities  and  habits 
of  man — the  most  versatile  of  created  beings  — 
is  the  capability  and  habit  of  submitting  to  the 
dictation  of  his  fellow-man.  This  forms  the  only 
foundation  on  which  monarchy  can  rise  or  rest. 
When  and  wherever  this  ceases  to  exist,  then 
and  there  —  and  then  and  there  only — will  mon 
archy  or  despotic  civil  authority  be  known  no 
more. 

Among  the  great  facts  of  human  history, 
nothing  that  was  destined  to  decline  ever  dis 
played  more  of  vastness  and  perpetuity  than 

19 


20  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

civil  monarchy.  From  the  days  of  Nimrod  down 
to  the  year  of  grace,  1776,  hardly  anything 
appeared  to  intimate  that  division  into  the  two 
hitherto  inevitable  classes  —  slave  and  master, 
subject  and  sovereign  —  was  not  the  normal  and 
necessary  condition  of  the  race.  Crowned  with 
the  Babylonish  empire  as  its  "head  of  gold," 
monarchy,  through  successive  ages  of  universal 
prevalence,  had  wrought  itself  into  an  august 
embodiment  that  promised  to  absorb  within  it 
self  all  that  remained  of  human  history.  The 
antagonistic  civil  principle  had  not  yet  germi 
nated.  The  "  little  stone  "  that  was  to  "  become 
a  great  mountain,  and  fill  the  earth "  instead,  had 
not  yet  been  "cut  out  without  hands.*  And  yet 
there  was  a  progressive  degeneracy  in  that  which 
constituted  the  peculiar  richness  and  excellence 
of  monarchical  power.  Through  the  Medo-Per- 
sian  and  Macedonian  ages,  this  degeneration  pro 
gressed,  until  the  iron  despotism  of  the  Roman 
empire,  and  its  representatives  and  successors, 
the  modern  kingdoms  of  Europe  and  western 
Asia,  displayed  the  once  glorious  and  beneficent 
principle  of  civil  monarchy  in  forms  of  baseness 
and  cruelty  unsurpassed  by  anything  outside  the 
confines  of  the  darkest  barbarism. 


*  The  reference  here  is  to  the  prophet  Daniel,  who  is  interpreted  as  say 
ing  that  monarchical  government  must  become  extinct  at  about  the  present 
age  of  the  world. 


MONARCHY  AND  DEMOCRACY.          21 

Perhaps  the  basis  of  monarchical  strength  — 
the  capability  and  easy  habit  of  submitting  to 
dictation  —  had  been  gradually  ebbing  out  of 
the  popular  masses,  thus  necessitating  the  as 
sumption  of  harshness  and  violence  on  the  part 
of  the  ruling  few,  in  order  to  save  their  inherited 
or  usurped  preeminence  from  falling  into  hope 
less  desuetude. 

The  word  monarchy,  when  strictly  defined, 
describes  the  condition  of  affairs  in  which  one 
man  presides  in  supreme  civil  power  over  the 
state  or  nation.  In  common  usage,  the  word  is 
understood  to  apply  to  all  those  modifications  of 
the  one-man-power  which  fall  short  of  democ 
racy.  In  democracy  the  majority  rule.  The 
word  despotism  describes  an  intense,  abused 
form  of  monarchy. 

As  monarchy  is  founded  on  nothing  but  the 
ability  and  habit  of  the  people  to  submit  to  the 
dictation  of  superiors,  so  democracy  is  founded 
on  nothing  but  the  opposite  of  this,  namely,  the 
permanent  inability  of  the  people  to  submit  to 
the  dictation  of  any  but  themselves. 

These  two  plans  or  principles  of  government 
are  intensely  antagonistic :  so  much  so,  that 
wherever  they  exist  together,  annihilating  war 
is  inevitable,  in  one  form  or  another,  until  the 
one  principle  or  the  other  is  extirpated. 


22  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

Such  being  the  state  of  the  case,  and  mon 
archy  being  already  universal  in  the  Old  World, 
where  should  a  place  be  found,  whereon  to  de 
velop  the  germ  of  free  government?  This  in 
quiry  would  have  been  a  serious,  perhaps  an 
unanswerable  one,  had  not  the  wise  and  gracious 
Ruler  of  the  universe,  from  the  first  founding  of 
the  world,  reserved  the  American  continent  for 
this  special  purpose. 

As  the  age  drew  near  in  which  monarchy  was 
to  become  extinct,  two  great  preparatory  opera 
tions  were  found  to  be  going  on.  First,  the  con 
tinent  was  being  discovered,  explored,  and  ren 
dered  accessible  and  habitable.  Secondly,  a  race 
of  men,  the  first  of  the  nations,  were  being  train 
ed,  separated,  and  at  last  transported  thither, 
among  whom  the  principle  of  popular  self-gov 
ernment  was  to  be  planted,  developed,  and 
strengthened  into  unconquerable  prevalence. 


II. 

PREPARATION  AND  TRANSFER  OF  THE  PEOPLE  WHO  WERE  TO 
INHABIT  THE  CONTINENT  RESERVED  FOR  FREE  GOVERN 
MENT. 

WHILE  the  continent  that  had  been  reserved 
for  the  birthplace  of  civil  freedom  was  yet  an 
undiscovered  wilderness,  roamed  over  only  by  a 
few  tribes  of  feeble  savages,  the  race  of  men 
that  were  to  be  its  first  fit  occupants  were  being 
thus  prepared. 

An  island  was  selected  in  the  temperate  zone, 
best  fitted  for  the  development  of  mental,  moral, 
and  physical  strength,  remote  alike  from  the 
stinting  cold  and  poverty  of  the  frigid,  and  from 
the  sickening,  passion-kindling,  heat  of  torrid, 
latitudes ;  sufficiently  near  the  continent  to 
admit  the  stimulating  influence  and  intercourse 
of  the  European  society  of  nations ;  sufficiently 
isolated  to  remain  largely  uninfluenced  by  the 
degeneracy  and  turmoils  of  those  nations.  Here 
the  aboriginal  inhabitants  were  crossed  by  an 
admixture  of  the  civilized  and  all-conquering 
Romans,  and  afterward  successively  by  four 
other  of  the  most  stalwart  races  of  middle  and 

23 


24  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

northern  Europe.  The  result  was,  a  people  more 
vigorous  and  controlling  than  any  contempora 
neous  nation  of  the  earth.  Their  vigor  dis 
played  itself  in  an  early  separation  from  the 
Romish  Church,  and  a  successful  defiance  of 
both  its  corruptions  and  its  force. 

The  despotism  that  prevailed  oppressively 
over  the  rest  of  Christendom  was  soon  broken 
and  permanently  modified  in  England  by  the 
turbulent  exactions  of  the  nobility.  The  "  Magna 
Charta,"  exacted  by  his  nobles  from  King  John, 
is  justly  regarded  as  the  first  distinct  germ  of 
modern  free  government. 

This  turbulent  nobility  at  length  destroyed 
itself  in  its  intestine  wars,  and  left  the  Commons 
—  the  elected  representatives  of  the  common 
people  —  to  rise  into  an  importance  which  they 
have  never  resigned,  and  which  is  as  great,  per 
haps,  as  is  compatible  with  the  continued  exist 
ence  of  monarchy. 

From  a  people  thus  prepared  and  trained  —  a 
people  of  mental  and  moral  stature,  and  national 
strength  and  resources  second  to  none  of  its 
contemporaries  —  were  selected  the  chosen  few 
who  were  to  plant  the  first  permanent  settle 
ments  on  the  continent  that  had  been  reserved 
to  be  the  birthplace  and  heritage  of  popular 
government.  Here  they  hardened  under  un- 


EARLY  SETTLERS.  25 

wonted  trials  and  privation,  removed  by  a 
voyage  of  months  from  the  efficient  presence  of 
that  government  under  whose  ample  protection, 
and  from  the  enlightened  community  in  whose 
affluent  bosom,  they  had  been  reared.  Exposed 
to  the  rigors  of  a  trying  climate,  assaults  of  sav 
ages,  the  ravages  of  disease,  and  in  no  slight 
degree  to  the  perils  of  starvation,  they  gradually 
became  aware  of  their  ability  to  protect  -them 
selves,  and  became  insensibly  possessed  of  a 
mysterious  inability  to  submit  to  needless  and 
unreasonable  dictation.  Gradually  reinforced  in 
numbers  from  the  source  from  which  the  original 
settlers  sprang,  there  resulted  a  homogeneous 
and  unique  national  character,  one  great  essen 
tial  of  which  was  the  yet  latent  but  inexorable 
necessity  of  self-government. 


III. 

TWO  PERMANENT  SETTLEMENTS  ON  THIS  CONTINENT  —  THE 
DIFFERENCE  OF  CHARACTER  PERTAINING  TO  THE  PEOPLE 
OF  EACH,  AND  THE  NECESSARY  RESULTS  OF  THIS  DIFFER 
ENCE. 

Two  permanent  settlements  were  made  in 
North  America  at  about  the  same  period,  and  a 
few  hundred  miles  apart.  One  at  Plymouth, 
Massachusetts,  by  a  religious  community,  brought 
out  from  its  former  home  by  the  pressure  of 
religious  restrictions,  to  find  more  perfect  reli 
gious  freedom.  The  other  at  Jamestown,  Vir 
ginia,  by  a  secular  community,  moved  by  the 
motives  which  ordinarily  prompt  to  the  colo 
nizing  of  new  countries,  —  a  desire  to  promote 
national  enlargement,  and  to  better  the  condi 
tion  of  the  individuals  concerned.  Each  colony 
drew  to  itself  kindred  material  from  the  mother 
land,  and  spread.  Other  settlements,  less  dis 
tinct  in  character,  came  to  the  intervening  and 
adjacent  space,  amalgamated  with  either  of  the 
first  two  settlements,  and  the  country,  for  hun 
dreds  of  miles  in  every  direction,  became  com 
pactly  filled.  The  originally  secular  community 

26 


THE  TWO   COLONIES.  27 

became  more  religious,  and  the  originally  reli 
gious  community  gradually  became  substantially 
secular,  until,  to  the  eye  of  the  common  ob 
server,  no  lineament  of  the  original  diversity 
of  germ  was  discernible  in  the  homogeneous 
product  of  the  two  primal  settlements.  Whether 
a  century  of  amalgamated  existence  and  united 
governmental  activity  has  or  has  not  eradicated 
original  incongruities  of  character  from  the  off 
spring  of  these  separate  germs,  is  a  question 
that  has  been  clothed  with  momentous  impor 
tance  by  the  events  of  1861-2. 

The  original  religious  difference  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  colonies,  though  dimin 
ished,  has  never  become  extinct.  The  activity 
of  Northern  minds  still  takes  a  religious  turn. 
What  there  is  among  them  of  real  faith  in  God 
and  in  his  revealed  Word  assumes  a  more  posi 
tive,  aggressive,  and  fruitful  type  than  elsewhere ; 
and  what  there  is  among  them  of  ungodliness 
and  infidelity  assumes,  to  a  very  remarkable 
extent,  a  sanctimonious  aspect  and  a  religious 
form.  Whole  denominations  of  churches  keep 
up  the  costly  rites  and  ceremonies  of  religious 
worship,  merely  to  clothe  themselves  with  the 
external  decorum  of  believers,  to  give  expres 
sion  and  exercise  to  those  religious  faculties  and 
feelings  common  to  the  race,  to  emphasize 


28  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

their  rejection  of  revealed  truth,  and  to  retain 
their  followers  from  being  drawn  under  the 
dominion  of  an  evangelical  faith.  While  in  the 
South,  real  religion  is  more  silent  and  retiring, 
and  ungodliness  prides  itself  on  the  frank  and 
open  bearing  of  the  undisguisedly  profligate. 

Diversity  of  climate  and  other  accidents  have 
induced  more  or  less  difference  of  character  and 
habit  between  the  descendants  of  the  Northern 
and  Southern  colonists,  in  addition  to  any  diver 
sity  that  originally  marked  their  ancestors.  All 
these,  with  the  original  and  continued  religious 
difference  that  existed  and  still  exists,  may  serve 
t.p  induce  diversity  of  social  tastes,  and  even  a 
degree  of  antipathy  between  the  dwellers  in 
the  Northern  and  Southern  portions  of  the 
Union  ;  but  all  this  sinks  into  utter  non-impor 
tance  in  the  presence  of  the  one  great  charac 
teristic  feature  of  the  age.  Despotism  and 
Democracy  have  for  years  been  mustering  their 
adherents  for  deadly  and  final  conflict ;  and  by 
the  all-absorbing  power  and  importance  of  this 
struggle,  where  it  is  present,  any  other  shade  or 
ground  of  difference  between  two  civil  commu 
nities  is  merged  at  once  in  oblivious  insignifi 
cance. 

The  question,  then,  whether,  between  the 
people  of  the  Northern  and  Southern  portions 


CONDITIONS   OF   UNION.  29 

of  the  Union  there  exists  such  radical  divergence 
of  character  as  necessitates  the  sundering  of  the 
civil  ties  that  hitherto  united  them,  becomes 
simply  the  question  whether  the  people  of  these 
two  sections  have  become  arrayed  on  different 
sides  in  the  great  strife  that  is  going  on  through 
out  the  civilized  world  between  the  friends  and 
the  enemies  of  popular  self-government. 

If  both  are  on  the  same  side  in  this  one  great, 
all  important,  all-absorbing,  conflict  of  the  age, 
then  any  present  or  partial  difference  that  may 
separate  them  on  minor  points  will  of  necessity 
soon  subside  and  disappear,  and  leave  them 
naturally  and  substantially  united.  If,  on  the 
contrary,  the  people  of  these  two  sections  are 
fairly  and  permanently  fixed  on  different  sides 
in  the  great  conflict  of  the  age,  then,  no  act  of 
separation,  no  peace-treaty  or  covenant,  no  guar 
anty  or  mediation,  can  prevent  their  warring 
with  deadly  animosity,  until  one  or  the  other 
party  to  the  strife  is  converted  or  consumed. 

8* 


IT. 

CLAIM  OF   THE  NORTH  TO   BEING   CONSIDERED   DEMOCRATIC  — 
ITS    VALIDITY   AND    LIMIT. 

WITH  regard  to  the  position  of  the  Northern 
States,  on  the  great  question  of  the  day,  there 
is,  and  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion.  If  their 
own  profession,  and  the  admission  of  all  foreign 
nations,  that  they  are  the  peculiar  possessors, 
advocates,  and  champions,  of  free  government, 
were  not  satisfactory  proof  on  this  point,  their  pe 
culiar  follies  and  weaknesses,  as  displayed  in  the 
conduct  of  the  present  war,  their  apparent 
utter  inability  to  have  a  governing  policy,  or  an 
efficient  head,  should  establish  beyond  a  cavil 
that  they  are  anything  else  but  monarchists. 

The  fact  of  the  Northern  States  having  abolished 
slavery  within  their  borders  is  some  proof  of  the 
depth  and  genuineness  of  their  professed  democ 
racy,  inasmuch  as  the  causes  which  induced  this 
line  of  action,  and  the  action  itself,  would  have 
tended  somewhat  strongly  to  induce  and  to  con 
firm  the  democratic  element.  The  fact  that  the 
people  of  the  Northern  States  have  never  exacted 
from  their  several  States,  nor  from  the  general 

80 


LIMITS    OF  NORTHERN    FREEDOM.  31 

government,  distinct  admission  of  the  citizenship 
of  their  colored  population,  limits,  though  per 
haps  it  does  not  go  far  to  countervail,  the  depth 
and  sincerity  of  their  claims  to  being  considered 
democratic. 

A  still  more  serious  limit  to  the  genuineness 
of  these  claims  is  found  in  the  history  of  the 
tame  submissiveness  with  which  the  people  and 
statesmen  of  the  North,  have  almost  unresistingly 
accorded  a  vast  predominance  of  political  influ 
ence  to  the  Southern  minority  in  the  national 
councils.*  This  is  an  error,  not  of  design,  but 
of  unconscious  feebleness  in  what  forms  the 
basis  of  all  reliable  self-government,  —  an  inabil 
ity  to  submit  to  dictation. 

Perhaps,  on  the  other  hand,  some  allowance  is 
justly  to  be  made  on  account  of  the  unorganized, 
unsuspecting  nature  of  all  democratic  communi 
ties.  Only  in  the  presence  of  a  recognized 


*  Out  of  the  seventy-two  years  of  the  existence  of  our  government  from 
its  organization  to  the  close  of  Buchanan's  administration,  Southern  men 
have  held  the  seat  of  chief  executive  forty-eight  years — just  two-thirds 
of  the  time.  Add  to  this,  that  Pierce  and  Buchanan,  two  of  the  Northern 
Presidents  were  notoriously  mere  tools  of  the  South,  and  owe  their  elections 
to  that  fact,  which  the  history  of  their  administrations  never  contradicted, — 
then  allow  that  all  offices  of  emolument  and  trust  under  the  general  gov 
ernment,  domestic  and  foreign,  civil,  military,  and  naval,  have  been  distrib 
uted  to  Southerners  in  approximately  the  same  ratio  in  which  they  have 
held  the  post  of  chief  executive,  —  and  the  result  will  be  a  somewhat  seri 
ous  drawback  on  the  validity  of  the  profession  of  Northerners  to  being  a 
democratic  people. 


32  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

antagonist  is  there  anything  to  inspire  them 
with  suspicion,  to  force  on  them  that  organiza 
tion,  or  train  them  to  that  reconnoitring  alert 
ness,  from  which  they  naturally  lapse  in  time  of 
peace,  and  without  which  they  are  defenceless 
as  sheep. 

A  monarchical  government  so  readily  assumes 
the  attitude  and  armament  of  war  that  war  may 
almost  be  said  to  be  its  normal  state.  Its  single 
or  naturally  united  head,  always  necessarily 
vigilant,  and  alert  to  maintain  its  own  preemi 
nence  in  its  own  community,  undergoes  but 
trilling  change  of  state  or  activity  when  it  turns 
its  attention  to  foes  without,  or  taxes  the  resour 
ces  of  its  realm  to  resist  invasion  or  to  become 
itself  the  invader. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  the  democratic  com 
munity,  the  law  that  reduces  all  preeminence  to 
the  common  level  —  the  practical  efficiency  of 
which  law  is  the  first  condition  of  democracy  — 
neutralizes  the  intelligence  and  paralyzes  the 
activity  of  any  one  who  might  be  able  to  warn 
of  danger,  or  to  direct  efforts  to  forestall  disaster, 
until  such  time  as  the  constant  aggravation  of 
prolonged  oppression,  or  some  sudden  violation 
of  every  sense  of  justice,  rouses  the  universal 
populace  with  one  common  purpose  to  resist. 


LIMITS   OF  NORTHERN    FREEDOM.  33 

This  natural  disposition  and  tendency  of  a 
democratic  community  to  be  remiss  and  ineffi 
cient  in  preserving  its  rights,  and  resisting  aggres 
sion,  will  account  in  part  for  the  undue  ascend 
ency  of  Southern  influence  in  our  national  coun 
cils,  but  it  will  not  wholly  account  for  or  excuse 
this.  The  historic  fact  that  such  notoriously 
imbecile  tools  as  Frank  Pierce  and  James 
Buchanan  had  strong,  organized,  and  in  some 
instances  ruling,  parties  in  the  North  to  advocate 
their  election  and  to  sustain  their  administra 
tions,  —  is  a  fact  that  admits  of  explanation  only 
on  the  admission  that  said  parties  had  become 
depraved  to  a  great  extent  of  the  first  essential 
of  democracy, —  an  inability  to  submit  to  usurped 
dictation. 

To  extenuate  their  conduct,  it  may  be  said 
that  many  of  the  men  who  voted  to  raise  these 
two  men  to  the  chief  magistracy  did  so  without 
understanding  the  import  of  their  deeds.  They 
were  practised  on  by  party  deceptions;  they 
had  been  drilled  for  years  to  blind  submission  to 
party  leaders !  As  much  as  this  can  be  said  in 
defence  of  the  most  grovelling  set  of  slaves  that 
ever  fixed  upon  themselves  the  shackles  of  a 
despot. 

The  simple  truth  is,  that  with  more  light  and 


34  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

knowledge  than  ever  before  illuminated  the  path 
of  a  people  similarly  situated,  they  did  what  in 
them  lay,  to  sell  themselves  and  their  country 
into  the  hands  of  as  fierce  a  set  of  tyrants  as 
ever  endeavored  to  usurp  the  rights  of  a  people 
they  had  purposed  to  enslave. 


LI  B  it  A  it  V 

UNIVERSITY   OF  j 

CALIFORNIA.  J 

_. ^^., ._.„._    -^ 

V. 


CLAIMS  OF  THE  SOUTH  TO  BEING  CONSIDERED  DEMOCRATIC 
EXAMINED,  AND  FOUND  TO  HAVE  BEEN  SINCERE  AT  FIRST, 
BUT  NOW  FALSE  IN  THE  EXTREME. 

TIIE  people  of  the  Southern  States  profess  also 
to  advocate,  possess,  and  exemplify  the  principles 
of  popular  self-government.  And  it  is  only  by 
separating  what  is  fact  from  what  is  fiction,  in 
this  profession,  that  we  can  arrive  at  any  reliable 
conclusion  respecting  the  moving  spring  of  their 
rebellion,  or  the  means  of  bringing  our  existing 
war  to  a  successful  close. 

That  the  people  of  the  Southern  States,  with 
comparatively  few  individual  exceptions,  sincere 
ly  believe  themselves  to  be  democratic  members 
of  a  democratic  community,  there  can  be  no 
doubt. 

But  the  question  before  us  is  not  a  question 
as  to  what  the  Southern  people  believe  or  sup 
pose  themselves  to  be,  or  what  they  are  believed 
or  supposed  to  be  by  others.  It  is  a  question  of 
fact,  whether  they  arc  or  are  not  capable  of  them 
selves  exercising  or  submitting  to  the  exercise 
by  others,  of  despotic  dictation  in  civil  affairs. 

35 


36  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

Let  the  answer  to  this  inquiry  be  reliably  ascer 
tained,  and  in  that  answer,  and  in  that  only,  we 
have  the  data  for  framing  a  policy  which  will 
bring  our  present  grievous  intestine  war  to  a 
successful  issue. 

The  history  of  the  Southern  people,  at  first 
view,  appears  to  justify  the  conclusion  that  their 
profession  of  democratic  principles  is  sincere. 
Originating  from  the  same  national  stock,  trans 
ported  at  about  the  same  period  across  the  same 
almost  interminable  ocean  (as  then  navigated), 
and  subjected  to  the  same  perils  of  starvation 
and  savage  hostilities,  there  is  nothing  wanting 
but  the  same  severity  of  climate  and  poverty  of 
soil,  to  complete  in  all  essentials  the  historic 
parallel  between  the  early  experience  of  the 
Northern  and  Southern  colonies.  Each  appears 
to  have  had  substantially  the  same  experience 
and  training,  leading  and  impelling  them  to  re 
sist  the  dictatorial  exercise  of  power  by  the 
mother  country;  and  with  substantially  the 
same  result.  The  end  of  a  century  and  a  half 
of  colonial  existence  found  the  accumulated  col 
onies  of  the  North,  under  the  lead  of  Massachu 
setts,  and  of  the  South,  under  Virginia,  alike 
prompt  and  desirous  to  inaugurate  and  carry  on 
the  war  of  independence,  and  alike  worthy  to 
share  the  benefits  that  war  obtained. 


SOUTHERN  SENTIMENT  IN   1776.  37 

Such  a  test  as  the  war  of  the  Revolution  sup 
plied,  could  not  fail  to  develop  any  deficiency  of 
the  elements  of  freedom,  had  any  such  defi 
ciency  existed  at  that  time.  Since  then,  the 
trade  of  politicians  has  been  plied  in  every  quar 
ter  of  the  land  so  thoroughly,  so  perpetually  and 
persistently,  that  any  movement  of  the  people 
or  of  any  portion  of  them,  requires  to  be  re 
viewed  and  repeated  for  some  length  of  time, 
before  it  is  safe  to  consider  it  as  spontaneous  or 
sincere,  and  not  artificial  and  produced  by  dem 
agogues.  But  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
and  before,  whatever  the  people  did  was  reason 
ably  sure  to  have  been  done  sincerely  and  of  their 
own  simple  motion.  There  were  tories  North 
and  South ;  individuals,  and  sometimes  large 
neighborhood  majorities,  who  preferred  monar 
chy,  or,  at  least,  preferred  the  old  British  govern 
ment,  to  anything  which  they  thought  likely  to 
be  achieved  by  revolution ;  and  they  showed  this 
preference  by  active  cooperation  with  the  Brit 
ish,  or  by  very  obstinate  neutrality.  There  ap 
pears  to  have  been  more  of  these  in  the  extreme 
South,  than  in  any  other  section.  A  more  ener 
vating  climate,  less  advantages  of  education,  and 
of  enlarged  intercourse,  and  a  more  natural  in 
difference  as  to  what  government  they  were  un 
der,  may  account  for  this.  While  the  splendid 


38  NATURAL   HISTORY    OF  SECESSION. 

specimens  of  ability  and  devotion  to  Freedom's 
caiise,  which  were  at  the  same  time  displayed  in 
the  same  section,  largely  offset  the  other,  and 
almost  dispel  any  suspicion  that  the  Southern 
colonies,  as  a  section,  were  behind  the  North  in 
their  demand  for  national  freedom,  or  in  their 
contributions  for  its  procurement. 

The  influence  which  the  Revolutionary  strug 
gle,  with  its  sacrifices  and  privations,  must  have 
had  on  those  who  engaged  in  it,  could  not  have 
been  other  than  to  deepen  and  confirm  their 
preference  for  the  cause  they  espoused,  even 
if  that  preference  had  been  at  first  waver 
ing.  And  the  results  of  the  glorious  achieve 
ments  of  that  war  —  the  sense  of  triumph,  and 
the  rapid  rise  of  national  character  and  wealth 
—  must  have  overwhelmed  the  craven  spirit  of 
toryism  that  at  first  persisted  in  its  preference 
for  British  monarchy  as  its  government.  Such, 
we  may  well  believe,  was  indeed  the  case.  Pref 
erences  for  monarchical  government  disappeared. 
And  up  to  a  recent  period,  almost  no  one  has 
had  the  hardihood  to  avow  a  preference  for  any 
form  of  government  other  than  the  one  we  have; 
had.  So  perfectly  and  so  splendidly  has  the 
upward  progress  of  our  nation  exemplified  and 
illustrated  the  benefits  of  free  government,  that 
evidence  amounting  almost  to  proof  of  hatred 


THE  REBELS  ENEMIES  OP  FREE  GOVERNMENT.   39 

to  all  democracy  in  the  authors  of  this  rebellion, 
is  found  in  the  fact  that  they  have  purposed,  and 
are  laboring  to  achieve,  the  overthrow  of  this 
first  successful  specimen  of  popular  self-govern 
ment.  This  government  is  universally  admitted 
to  be  the  representative  and  almost  the  embodi 
ment  of  all  modern  free  government,  and  those 
who  are  engaged  in  an  assassin  struggle  for  its 
overthrow  are  a  monstrous  anomaly  in  the  world 
of  sequence,  if  they  are  not  the  representatives  and 
champions  of  the  tottering  monarchies  of  a  ty 
rant-ridden  world.  The  gauzy  pretence  that  they 
are  laboring  to  establish  a  more  perfect  form  of 
free  government,  is  but  an  extorted  compliment 
to  the  admitted  worth  and  splendor  of  the  one 
they  are  laboring  to  destroy.  Nothing  else  but 
such  pretence  could  shield  them  from  the  open 
shame  of  being  the  common  enemies  of  man 
kind. 


VI. 

CAUSE  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  LAPSE  FROM  DEMOCRACY  BACK  TO 
DESPOTISM  — IMPERFECT  LIGHT  WITH  WHICH  THE  NATIONAL 
CONSTITUTION  WAS  ADOPTED. 

UNQUESTIONED  and  unquestionable  is  the  his 
toric  record,  that,  from  Washington  and  Jeffer 
son,  down  to  Marion  and  Sumter,  the  Southern 
colonies  supplied  many  of  the  bravest  warriors 
of  the  Revolution,  many  of  the  ablest  and  most 
devoted  of  the  framers.  of  our  present  govern 
ment.  Equally  certain  is  it,  that  the  ablest 
minds  of  the  South,  one  and  all,  with  sparse 
exceptions,  are  now  laboring  with  infuriate  zeal 
to  dissipate  what  the  valor  of  their  fathers  won, 
to  pull  down  what  the  wisdom  and  devotion  of 
their  fathers  reared. 

This  change,  that  has  occurred  between  the 
fathers  and  their  sons,  demands  to  be  accounted 
for. 

To  attribute  such  a  change  to  caprice,  or  to 
political  accidents,  one  or  many,  without  the 
intervention  of  the  sternest  laws,  and  the  deepest 
principles  that  influence  and  govern  national 
character  and  conduct,  would  be  to  abandon  all 

40 


THE  SOUTHERN  LAPSE.  41 

idea  of  cause  and  effect  in  the  sphere  of  man's 
associate  action,  and  to  convert  the  moral  world 
into  a  moral  chaos,  wherein  all  law  is  nugatory 
and  reason  useless. 

That  the  parties  undergoing  it  should  be 
themselves  intelligently  cognizant  of  the  change, 
is  not  to  be  expected.  It  is  too  deep  and  radical, 
its  occurrence  has  been  too  gradual  and  silent, 
it  is  too  total,  extensive,  and  absorbing,  to  be 
intelligently  comprehended  by  those  who  are 
the  subjects  of  it.  It  is  the  greatest  and  most 
mysterious  change  that  human  character  can 
undergo,  next  to  that  change  of  which  the 
Scriptures  say,  "  as  the  wind  bloweth  where  it 
listeth  and  thou  hearest  the  sound  thereof,  but 
canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it 
goeth,  so  is  every  one  that  experiences  it."  It 
is  the  change  from  democracy  to  despotism; 
or  rather  the  lapse  consequent  on  the  conver 
sion  from  despotism  to  democracy  having  been 
in  the  first  instance  imperfect. 

When  the  war  of  the  Revolution  was  over, 
and  the  convention  which  formed  our  Constitu 
tion  had  assembled,  jarring  and  repellent  inter 
ests  well-nigh  rendered  their  labors  finally  abor 
tive. 

This  was  to  be    expected.     Only  the  heavy 


42  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

costs  of  freedom  had  as  yet  been  proved.  The 
rich  fruits  of  its  possession  were  still  conjectu 
ral  ;  and  union,  as  indispensable  alike  to  their 
procurement  or  preservation,  had  not  then,  as 
now,  become  matter  of  manifold  experience. 
Sectional  interests  and  even  local  prejudices 
were  sufficient  to  jar,  and  even  repel,  the  parts 
that  had  not  then  been  formally  united,  nor 
welded  into  one,  by  three-fourths  of  a  century 
of  happy  and  glorious  experience. 

No  fundamental  ground  of  diversity  in  prin 
ciples  or  practice  then  displayed  itself.  Even 
the  question  of  slavery  was  far  from  being  local 
at  the  South.  Though  the  States  were  all,  or 
nearly  all,  slave-holding,  the  predominance  of 
interest  in  that  institution  was  at  the  South. 
Yet  the  South  was  far  from  being  unanimous  in 
favor  of  slavery ;  and  the  North  was  nearly  as 
far  from  being  unanimous  against  it.  The  lead 
ing  statesmen  of  the  age,  from  the  South  as  well 
as  from  the  North  —  themselves  slave-holders  — 
were  against  perpetuating  the  institution.  They 
had  successfully  perilled  their  lives,  their  posses 
sions,  and  their  hopes,  to  obtain  for  themselves, 
their  posterity,  and  their  country,  the  boon  of 
civil  freedom ;  and  they  were  then  engaged  in 
the  extremely  arduous  and  critical  work  of  giv 
ing  security  and  permanence  to  what  their  peril?, 


DEFICIENCY  OP  LIGHT   IN  1787.  43 

privation,  blood,   and  toil,   had   gained.     They 
were  deeply  conscious   of  the    incongruity  of 
making  the  perilous  and  costly  consummation 
of  the  freedom  of  one  race  the  occasion  of  riv 
eting   irrevocably  the  fetters  of  another  race, 
intermingled   among   them   on   the   same   soil. 
But  the  peril  of  such  a  course  they  did  not 
understand.     The  latent,  inevitable,  consuming, 
hostility  between   despotism   and   free  govern 
ment,  had  not,  at  that  early  stage  of  the  conflict 
between  these  two  great  principles,  been  suffi 
ciently  demonstrated  to  be  understood.     They 
dreaded  only  the  usurpations  of  those  who  were 
despotically  disposed ;  and  had  no  dread  of  the 
broader,  deeper,  and  more  surely  prolific  ground 
of  despotism, —  the  subservient  disposition  of  the 
masses.     That  the   existence  of  slaves  necessi 
tates  the  existence  of  masters,  and  that  masters 
are  necessarily  tyrants,  despots,  are  truths,  obvi 
ous  enough  to  us,  but  which  they  appear  not 
distinctly  to  have  discovered.     The   war   they 
had  just  gone  through  was  looked  on  as  not  ge- 
nerically  diverse  from  former  wars,  and  not  as  the 
initiatory  engagement   in  a  series  of  conflicts, 
the  most  fierce,  perhaps,  that  the  world's  history 
will  ever  have  recorded,  which  are  to  terminate 
in  the  utter  subversion  of  all  monarchy. 

It  was  left  for  us,  their  descendants,  at  this 


44  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF   SECESSION. 

remoter  period,  by  the  light  which  the  history 
of  their  day  throws  forward  upon  ours,  and  in 
the  light  which  ours  and  intervening  years 
throw  back  on  theirs,  to  discover  the  truth  that 
they  and  we  are  taking  part  in  the  downfall  of 
universal  despotism,  the  greatest  revolution  that 
civil  society  ever  has  been,  or  will  be,  called  to 
pass  through ;  that  they  and  we  are  fighting 
out  issues,  not  for  ourselves  alone,  but  for  the 
human  race,  —  issues  not  again  to  be  reversed 
till  the  end  of  time. 

Had  the  patriot  framers  of  the  Constitution 
of  our  country's  government  been  permitted  to 
see  and  realize  the  magnitude  and  extent  of 
the  change  they  were  inaugurating  in  the  world's 
history ;  had  they  obtained  a  glimpse  of  the 
inevitable  certainty  and  consuming  bitterness  of 
the  wars  which  they  had  begun,  and  which  were 
to  rage  at  intervals  until  the  last  of  monarchical 
institutions  shall  have  become'  extinct,  sooner 
than  do  as  they  did,  —  plant  the  seeds  of  inevi 
table,  intestine,  consuming  war  in  the  bowels  of 
the  sacred  structure  they  were  rearing  up  to  be 
consecrated  to  universal  Freedom,  —  such  colony 
or  colonies  as  refused  to  pledge  themselves  to 
final  emancipation  would  have  been  left  outside 
the  Union,  till  the  bitter  fruits  of  their  fatal 
choice  had  ripened  in  destruction  on  their  own 
unpitied  heads. 


VII. 

VIEWS  WITH  WHICH  THE  CONSTITUTION  WAS  ADOPTED  — 
WHAT  THAT  INSTRUMENT  DID,  AND  WHAT  IT  DID  NOT 
DO  FOR  SLAVERY. 

HAD  the  States  which  persisted  in  making  Af 
rican  slavery  perpetual  been  excluded  from  the 
original  Union,  would  the  Free  United  States 
have  prospered  as  they  have  done  in  the  union 
of  all  the  States  ?  The  history  of  the  Free  States 
does  not  admit  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  that, 
without  any  union  with,  or  assistance  from,  the 
Slave  States,  their  prosperity  would  have  been 
great  and  their  advancement  irresistible.  Their 
climax  of  greatness  might,  perhaps,  at  no  time 
prior  to  the  present,  have  reached  the  point  at 
which  it  stood  when  this  war  began  ;  but  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  would  have  reached  the 
condition  in  which  it  will  be  found  when  this 
war  shall  close. 

The  Southern  or  slave-holding  States,  on  the 
other  hand,  would  have  been  early  won,  to  join 
the  prosperous  Free  States,  and  abandon  slavery, 
or  else  they  would  have  become  monarchical  in 
form  as  rapidly  as  they  became  so  in  fact ;  would 

45 


46  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

have  become  confederate  with  European  mon 
archies  ;  and  their  present  war  on  freedom,  would 
have  taken  place  ten  or  twenty  years  earlier 
than  it  has,  and  before  the  Slave  States  attained 
a  tithe  of  their  present  power  for  mischief.  The 
war,  in  that  case,  might  have  been  less  deci 
sive,  more  protracted,  or  repeated  at  intervals, 
more  than  now,  but  during  its  course,  whether 
long  or  short,  there  could  hardly  have  been  as 
much  lying  as  has  been  done  in  Europe  and  in 
the  Slave  States  during  each  ten  days  since  the 
rebellion  commenced. 

But  the  truth  of  the  case  is,  that  the  patriot 
founders  of  our  government  never  believed  that 
African  slavery,  though  extant,  would  become 
perpetual.  They  were  themselves  possessed  of 
a  love  of  liberty  that  outweighed  all  other  con 
siderations.  They  knew  the  same  sentiment  to 
pervade  their  countrymen,  North  and  South. 
They  knew  that  the  terrible  costs  of  the  war 
had  not  only  proved  the  existence  and  preva 
lence  of  this  sentiment,  but  had  developed,  deep 
ened,  and  increased  the  same.  They  saw  with 
sanguine  faith  something  of  the  rich  prosperity 
that  awaited  the  future  of  the  United  States ; 
and  they  not  unreasonably  calculated  that  this 
would  confirm  the  love  of  freedom  in  every  sec- 


THE  CONSTITUTION  AND  SLAVERY.        47 

tion  of  the  land.  And  they  saw  no  good  reason 
to  doubt  that  the  evident  incongruity  of  a  love 
of  being  free  one's  self,  and  the  love  of  enslav 
ing  another  —  the  warring  difference  there  was 
between  the  sentiment  and  the  practice  of  se 
curing  the  widest  liberty  to  the  white,  while 
imposing  the  heaviest  servitude  on  the  black  — 
would,  at  no  distant  day,  while  yet  the  love  of 
freedom  in  the  citizens  was  unshaken,  eventuate 
in  the  enfranchisement  of  the  slaves. 

They  secured  the  extinguishment  of  the  foreign 
slave-trade,  and  permitted  the  domestic  slave-trade 
to  have  a  free  field.  They  allowed  a  representa 
tion  in  Congress  to  the  masters  on  account  of 
slaves,  and  secured  the  return  of  the  fugitives. 
These  things  they  did  as  a  fit  and  customary 
compromise  of  jarring  interests,  and  left  the  in 
evitable  opposition  between  slavery  and  freedom 
to  work  out  the  rest ;  desiring  and  believing  that 
the  result  would  be,  the  ultimate  glorious  tri 
umph  of  the  latter.  Their  expectations  are  not 
to  be  disappointed.  But  the  long  delay  and 
the  bloody  vale  of  humiliation,  which  were  to 
intervene  between  the  inception  and  the  accom 
plishment  of  their  hopes,  they  did  not  fore 
see.  The  causes  of  this  partial  disappointment 
of  their  expectations,  it  is  worthy  of  our  most 
earnest  and  patient  endeavors  to  understand. 


VIII. 

THE  CONSTITUTION  ADOPTED  —  SLAVERY  ABOLISHED  IN  THE 
NORTHERN  STATES  —  FROM  WHAT  INFLUENCES,  AND  WITH 
WHAT  RESULTS. 

THE  Constitution,  formed  by  the  Convention 
for  that  purpose  met  in  Philadelphia,  through 
much  difficulty,  peril,  prayer,  and  patience,  was 
at  length  completed.  More  or  less  tardily  each 
of  the  thirteen  then  existing  States  gave  in  its 
adherence  thereto,  and  on  the  thirtieth  of  April, 
1789,  it  went  into  operation  by  the  assembling 
of  Congress  and  the  induction  of  George  Wash 
ington  into  office  as  the  first  President.  From 
this  date  commenced  the  progress  of  the  United 
States  in  a  career  of  affluence,  expansion,  re 
spectability,  and  power,  unparalleled  and  unap- 
proached  in  the  history  of  nations,*  and  un 
checked,  until  it  was  confronted  with  the  prod 
uct  of  those  seeds  of  conflict  and  of  dissolution 
which  were  planted  in  the  Constitution  when 


*  It  seems  to  be  only  with  some  qualification  that  the  term  nation  can  be 
applied  to  a  conglomerate  like  that  which  fills  the  boundaries  of  our  land  — 
a  type  of  population  like  the  gathered  nationalities  of  former  universal 
monarchies,  which  seems  of  itself  to  presage  the  universal  spread  of  the 
government  they  sustain. 

48 


NORTHERN  STATES   ABOLISH   SLAVERY.  49 

its  protections  of  African  Slavery  were  per 
mitted  to  remain  perpetual. 

Six  of  the  northernmost  of  the  original  thir 
teen  States  shed  off  the  incubus  of  negro  sla 
very  without  commotion  and  without  regret. 

This  result  was  favored  by  the  accident  of 
climate,  and  perhaps  of  soil.  Negroes  are  con 
stitutionally  adapted  to  a  warm  climate.  They 
seem  almost  incapable  of  being  hardened  to  a 
cold  climate  like  the  white  races.  Hence  they 
did  not  thrive  so  spontaneously,  they  did  not 
multiply  as  rapidly,  as  in  the  Southern  States ; 
it  cost  more  to  keep  them,  and  they  were 
worth  less  when  kept.  Again,  the  bracing  cli 
mate  stimulated  both  the  mental  and  bodily 
powers  of  the  white  race  into  greater  activity, 
so  that  there  was  less  demand  for  slave  labor. 
The  fast-growing  spirit  of  freedom  and  equality 
soon  produced  a  social  atmosphere  in  which  the 
individual,  if  personally  otherwise  inclined,  be 
came  deeply  ashamed  to  accept  his  sustenance 
or  wealth  at  the  hands  of  an  unrequited,  half- 
civilized,  half-starved  darky.  The  negro  him 
self  became  stimulated,  if  not  by  the  climate,  by 
his  large  and  constant  intercourse  with  intelli 
gent,  ingenious,  and  self-supporting  whites,  and 
rapidly  and  obviously  became  fit  for  freedom. 

The  soil  in  the  Northern  States  is  not  suffi- 


50  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

ciently  productive  to  admit  of  the  constant 
production  of  one  great  staple  crop,  to  be  sold 
off  for  cash ;  and  all  experience  proves  that  in 
no  other  circumstances  is  slave  labor  profitable. 
Nothing  but  the  potent  stimulus  of  personal  in 
terest  will  so  far  overcome  the  latent  inertia  of 
human  powers  as  to  induce  a  man  to  apply  him 
self  successfully  amidst  a  variety  of  domestic  or 
agricultural  pursuits.  Under  a  relaxing  climate, 
authority  may  avail  to  impel  the  slave  along  in 
the  deep-worn  channel  of  routine,  in  the  simple 
production  of  cotton,  rice,  sugar,  or  tobacco. 
But  if  provisions  and  teams  are  also  to  be  raised 
as  well  as  the  staple  crop,  the  white  man  will 
find  it  about  as  cheap  to  do  his  work  himself,  or 
to  pay  some  one  who  will  be  concerned  to  save 
his  varied  interests  from  harm.*  If  no  great 
staple  is  to  be  produced  at  all,  if,  as  is  the  case 
almost  throughout  the  Northern  States,  affluence 
is  to  spring  from  the  application  of  skill,  indus 
try,  and  economy,  to  the  multifarious  vocations 
of  a  sterile  country,  slave  labor  soon  proves 
itself  to  be  a  costly  nuisance. 

Slavery  having  been  finally  and  effectually 
abolished  in  the  six  northernmost  of  the  original 
States,  and  being  excluded  from  the  northern- 

*  See  Appendix  A  at  close  of  volume. 


FRUITS  OF  AMPLE  FREEDOM  NORTH.       51 

most  of  the  new  States  which,  from  time  to  time, 
were  admitted  to  the  Union,  nothing  was  left 
in  these  States  to  limit  or  retard  the  maturing 
to  perfection  of  the  sentiments  and  principles 
of  free  government.  "  For  better  for  worse," 
whatever  these  principles  and  sentiments  lead 
to  was  destined  here  to  be  witnessed  and  expe 
rienced  to  its  full  extent. 

Accordingly  we  see  the  Northern  States  pre 
eminent  in  the  increase  and  general  diffusion  of 
wealth  and  learning ;  the  shipping  and  manu 
factures  of  the  country  fell  almost  entirely  into 
their  hands,  and  so  well  were  they  handled  that 
history  presents  no  parallel  results.  Immigra 
tion  fell  so  exclusively  to  the  North,  that,  in 
1860,  the  Northern  States  possessed  two-thirds 
of  the  white  population  of  the  whole  country. 
The  peculiar  work  of  democratic  principles — the 
leveling  down  of  individual  preeminence  —  had 
at  this  date  been  so  effectually  performed  that 
not  only  had  the  Southern  oligarchy  held  con 
trol  of  the  general  government,  and  used  it  for 
their  own  purposes  for  half  a  century,  but  when 
they  now  came  to  cast  off  the  Northern  States, 
robbed,  insulted,  and  defied,  and  these  were 
compelled  to  resort  to  arms  for  self-preservation, 
their  armies  were  like  sheep  without  a  shepherd, 
and  their  legislature  more  so.  With  such  a 


52  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

trembling  grasp  was  power  held  by  their  exec 
utive,  that,  at  the  end  of  sixteen  months  of  war, 
it  was  not  easy  to  show  that  they  had  not  injured 
themselves  by  exhaustion,  more  than  they  had 
inflicted  injury  on  their  antagonists  ;  and  Europe 
was  still  in  doubt  whether  the  South,  with  two 
men  to  her  one  against  her  in  the  field,  with  a 
still  greater  disparity  against  her  in  pecuniary 
resources  and  war-material,  and  without  the 
shadow  of  a  navy,  against  the  best  fleet  in  the 
world,  was  not  destined  to  have  things  her  own 
way,  simply  by  virtue  of  efficient  leadership. 


IX. 

CAUSES  WHICH  OPERATED  AGAINST  THE  ABOLISHING  OF 
SLAVERY  IN  THE  SOUTH  —  AN  ARISTOCRATIC  CLASS  AL 
WAYS  EXISTED  THERE  —  CLIMATE  MADE  THE  NEGROES 
THRIVE  —  FEW  WHITES  HAD  THE  INTELLIGENCE  TO  UN 
DERSTAND,  OR  THE  ENERGY  TO  ASSERT,  THEIR  RIGHTS. 

PRIOR  to  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  we 
have  seen  that  the  Southern  colonies  were  set 
tled  by  a  class  of  men,  of  character  somewhat 
different  from  that  of  the  settlers  at  the  North, 
and  for  somewhat  different  purposes.  Yet  they 
struck  for  freedom  at  the  He  volution ;  they 
contributed  adequately  to  secure  the  prize,  and 
shared  on  terms  of  equality  in  the  distribution 
of  its  benefits.  It  is  true  that  the  contributions 
from  the  South  toward  the  achievement  of  our 
independence,  and  the  subsequent  founding  of 
our  government,  came  more  in  the  form  of  dis 
tinguished  leaders  than  of  a  reliable  or  abun 
dant  supply  of  men  to  fill  the  army  ranks,  or  a 
strongly  supporting  sentiment  of  the  common 
people.  Yet  up  to  the  final  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,  and  the  organization  of  the  govern 
ment  under  Washington,  we  find  no  ground  to 

6*  68 


54  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

justify  the  suspicion  of  a  radical,  even  incipient, 
departure,  on  the  part  of  the  South,  from  the 
guidance  of  the  principles  of  popular  govern 
ment.  It  is,  then,  to  a  period  subsequent  to  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  that  we  are  to  look 
for  the  inception,  growth,  and  maturing  of  those 
principles  which  have  produced  the  present  Re 
bellion  and  intestine  war.  And  the  first  promi 
nent  fact  that  strikes  our  attention  in  the  search 
is,  that  whereas  African  slavery  dwindled  to 
extinction  in  the  Northern  States,  it  progressed 
uninterruptedly  at  the  South.  The  causes  and 
the  consequences  of  this  progress  demand  atten 
tion,  and  the  latter  more  than  the  former.  But 
first  the  causes. 

It  is  noticeable  that  in  the  settlement  of  the 
Southern  colonies,  nobles,  or  prominent  leaders 
figure  extensively.  The  common  people  appear 
not  at  an  early  period  to  have  manifested  the 
same  power  and  will  to  take  care  of  themselves 
that  from  the  first  characterized  the  colonists  of 
the  North.  In  1671,  in  a  population  of  40,000, 
Virginia  numbered  2,000  slaves  and  6,000  in 
dentured  white  servants ;  and  was  presided  over 
by  a  governor  who  prayed  "that  they  might 
long  remain  free  from  the  pernicious  influence 
of  free  schools  and  the  printing-press." 

The  educating  trials  of  colonial  experience, 


OBSTACLES   TO   FREEDOM'S   PROGRESS  SOUTH.        55 

and  the  salutary  discipline  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  doubtless  went  far  to  obliterate  aristocratic 
distinctions,  and  to  make  the  Southern  commu 
nity  in  reality  what  it  professed  to  be,  —  self- 
governing  by  popular  suffrage.  And  yet,  neither 
free  schools  nor  colleges,  or  other  schools  not 
free,  nor  yet  the  printing-press,  have  ever  pre 
vailed  at  the  South  with  more  than  a  tithe  of 
the  influence  they  exerted  at  the  North ;  and 
society  there  has  always,  to  the  present  time, 
exhibited  strong  tendencies  to  divide  itself  into 
dominant  and  subject  classes.  This  tendency 
may  have  had  some  direct  influence  in  limiting 
the  extension  and  perfecting  of  the  principles 
of  free  government,  but  it  may  also  be  regarded 
as  one  strong  barrier  to  the  spread  of  that  spirit 
-and  practice  of  emancipation  that  swept  the 
Northern  States. 

The  warm  climate,  adapted  to  the  African 
constitution,  made  the  negroes  thrive,  and  pre 
vented  the  institution  of  slavery  from  declining 
of  its  own  accord.  It  also  imparted  to  the 
master  an  indolence  of  disposition,  averse  to 
personal  application,  enterprise,  and  industry, 
and  went  far  to  reverse  those  characteristics  of 
the  Northern  population,  which  made  them  scorn 
alike  to  become  the  subjects  of  another's  mas- 


56  NATUEAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

tership,  or  to  accept  their  living  at  the  hands  of 
slaves  over  whom  they  happened  to  have  the 
power  to  extort  it. 

This  indolence  of  disposition,  on  the  part  of 
the  whites,  goes  far  to  account  for  the  absence 
of  free  schools,  and  the  almost  entire  absence 
of  a  Southern  literature  to  the  present  day. 

The  reason  why  slavery  was  not  abandoned 
in  the  South  at  the  time  and  under  the  pressure 
of  the  influence  of  free  institutions  for  the 
whites,  which  abolished  it  at  the  North,  is  in 
no  small  degree  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
Southern  white  population  lacked  the  enterprise 
to  abolish  it,  even  if  the  vast  majority  of  them 
sincerely  desired  it  to  be  abolished.  The  actual 
slave-owning  part  of  the  Southern  white  popu 
lation  never  has  been  more  than  one  in  thirty. 
These  hold  five-thirtieths  of  the  others,  or  five 
times  their  own  number,  identified  in  interest 
with  themselves,  by  blood  relationship  and  fam 
ily  alliance  ;  leaving  four-fifths  who  not  only 
have  no  interest  in  slavery,  but  whose  every 
prospect,  hope,  and  privilege,  but  that  of  vege 
tating  on  a  scanty  subsistence,  are  blasted  by  its 
presence. 

The  most  prominent  of  all  the  causes  which 
countervailed  the  abolishing  of  slavery  in  the 


SPIRITLESSNESS   OF  SOUTHERN  MASSES.  57 

Southern  as  it  was  abolished  in  the  Northern  States, 
under  the  influence  of  free  institutions  estab 
lished  for  the  whites,  is,  that  the  non-slave-holding 
people  of  the  South  lacked  the  enterprise,  intelligence, 
and  daring  to  demand  and  exact  their  democratic 
rights;  but  on  the  contrary  they  sat  down  su 
pinely  to  the  possession  of  naked  existence, 
under  a  network  of  legislation  and  popular 
usage  which  their  slave-holding  oligarchy  had 
framed  for  their  subjugation.  The  same  is  a 
most  prominent  cause,  without  the  operation  of 
which,  the  present  nefarious  Kebellion  against 
the  national  government  could  not  have  existed 
two  months.  And  without  the  subversion  of 
which,  this  Rebellion  can  never  be  put  down 
effectually.* 


*  In  allowing  the  majority  of  the  people  to  be  defrauded  of  the  right  of 
suffrage  in  the  States  that  never  did,  and  never  could,  carry  a  popular  ma 
jority  in  favor  of  Secession,  —  as  in  Virginia,  Louisiana,  and  Tennessee, — 
and  in  then  permitting  these  Union  majorities  to  be  forced  by  despotic  mil 
itary  power  into  the  armies  arrayed  against  a  government  which,  if  left  to 
their  choice,  they  would  quite  as  soon  have  supported  as  opposed,  the  ad 
ministration  of  President  Lincoln  appears  to  have  shown  deficiency  of  aim 
or  an  inefficiency  of  action  Avhich  ought  not  to  be  charged  to  the  account 
of  the  necessary  weaknesses  of  democratic  government.  Perhaps  a  part  of 
the  "damnable  inheritance"  entailed  on  the  present  administration  by  its 
immediate  predecessor,  was  the  necessity  of  inaction  in  this  regard ;  but  it 
appears  to  be  exceedingly  desirable  to  know,  whether  the  constituent  of  a 
government  on  which  he  is  dependent  for  protection  abroad,  is  or  is  not 
entitled  to  aid  from  the  general  executive,  when  he  finds  himself  in  an 
emergency  like  that  in  which  these  Union  majorities  were  placed.  If  the 
only  protection  to  which  these  Union  men  were  entitled,  was  to  be  found  in 
the  decisive  energy  of  their  own  strong  arms,  under  the  lead  of  such  men 


58  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

as  could  be  found  in  their  own-'  number,  it  might  facilitate  business  very 
much  to  have  this  fact  clearly  understood,  before  another  such  emergency 
shall  arise. 

Perhaps  no  demonstration  could  be  more  conclusive  that  these  majorities 
had  become  perfectly  conformed  to  the  character  and  condition  of  the  ab 
ject  many  in  a  despotism  than  the  fact  that  they  allowed  —  as  in  Virginia, 
for  instance  —  the  tyrant  few,  calling  to  their  aid  what  negro-traders,  gam 
blers  and  other  desperadoes  could  be  collected,  to  defeat,  put  down,  aad  im 
molate,  the  masses  of  the  community. 


L  i  to  it  A  it  L 

UNIVERSITY   OF 

CALIFORNIA. 

^u  u   7 

X. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  NON-ABOLISHMENT  OF  SLAVERY  IN  THE 
SOUTHERN  STATES  CONTINUED  —  THE  ENERVATION  OF 
THE  WHITES — THE  RICHNESS  OF  SOIL  —  THE  GREAT  NUM 
BER  OF  NEGROES  —  THE  POOR  WHITES  ACQUIRE  A  LOVE 
OF  IDLENESS  —  THE  SOCIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  NEGROES 
DEGRADES  AND  DESPOTIZES  THE  WHOLE  WHITE  COMMU 
NITY. 

NOT  only  did  the  inertness  of  character  pro 
duced  by  the  climate  of  the  Southern  States  act 
by  deterring  the  great  non-slave-hold  ing  majority 
of  white  citizens  in  those  States  from  asserting 
their  rights  and  enforcing  what  their  interests 
dictated,  in  respect  to  the  abolishment  of  slav 
ery,  but  the  same  lack  of  enterprise  also  de 
terred  many  and  many  a  master  from  ever  acting 
out  his  own  hearty  wish  to  leave  his  posterity 
free  from  the  obvious  curse. 

Such  was  the  radical  working  of  the  despotic 
principles  in  the  whole  framework  of  society, 
that  it  presently  became  a  matter  of  very  great 
difficulty  for  a  slave  to  be  set  free,  or  for  a  mas 
ter  to  abrogate  the  onerous  prerogatives  of  own 
ership. 

The  fertility  of  the  soil,  by  enabling  the  coun- 

59 


60  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

try,  for  a  long  time,  to  bear  the  embarrening 
influence  of  the  thriftless  institution,  contributed 
far  to  postpone  the  day  of  necessary  emancipa 
tion. 

The  number  of  negroes  in  the  Southern  States 
being  much  larger  than  in  the  Northern,  as  it 
was  difficult,  if  not  impracticable,  to  remove  them, 
the  apprehended  inconvenience  of  having  so 
large  a  number  of  persons  of  little  intelligence 
or  principle,  and  unused  to  exercise  the  rights  of 
freemen,  let  loose  upon  a  civilized  community, 
operated  adversely  to  emancipation.  Perhaps 
they  might  have  been  exported,  but  the  expense 
and  difficulties  of  the  work  would  have  been  im 
mense ;  their  labor  was  needed.  The  poor  whites 
soon  came  to  prefer  poverty  and  idleness  to  in 
dustry  and  thrift,  and  the  presence  of  the  slave- 
system  so  effectually  turned  away  the  immigra 
tion  of  foreign  laborers  that  no  one  thought  of 
obtaining  a  supply  of  labor  from  that  source. 

But  among  all  the  causes  that  contributed  to 
withstand  the  progress  of  free  principles  at  the 
South,  and  to  prevent  the  spread  there  of  that 
perfect  spirit  of  freedom  which  cleared  the  North 
of  slaves,  perhaps  the  most  prominent  and  effect 
ual  was  the  direct  influence  of  so  large  a  pro 
portion  of  half-barbarous  Africans  interspersed 
among  them,  in  forming  the  character,  principles, 


SLAVES  MOULDING   THEIR   MASTERS.  61 

and  habits,  of  the  members  of  the  white  com 
munity. 

It  has  been  before  remarked  that  in  these 
pages  we  are  dealing,  not  so  much  with  what 
men  suppose  themselves  to  be,  or  with  what 
they  intelligently  purpose  to  do,  as  we  are  with 
what  men  are,  from  the  necessities  of  the  situa 
tion  in  which  their  ancestors  placed  them,  and 
in  which  they  consent  to  remain ;  and  with  what 
they  do,  as  a  necessary  sequence  of  what  they 
are. 

For  the  "  high-born,"  labor-scorning  aristocrat 
of  the  South  to  suppose  or  to  admit  that  there 
is  anything  African  in  the  composition  of  his 
character,  is  not  to  be  expected.  And  yet,  that 
sparsely-settled  white  families,  who,  of  their  own 
free-will  and  choice,  abide  in  the  midst  of  col 
lected  Africans,  often  have  their  infants  nursed 
from  the  breasts  of  African  women,  grow  up  in 
the  companionship  of  African  playmates,  pass 
their  early  and  their  later  years  perpetually 
leaning  on  African  attendants,  are  perpetually 
tempted,  and  not  seldom  effectually  tempted,  to 
indulge  in  African  recreations ;  supported  in  af 
fluence  on  the  proceeds  of  African  labor,  from 
youth  to  age  perpetually  familiar  with  the  tones 
of  African  voices,  and  conversant  with  the  work 
ings  of  African  minds,  and  exalted  to  what 


62  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

themselves  suppose  and  esteem  to  be  the  high 
est  pinnacles  of  social  and  political  eminence,  by 
nothing  but  the  upholding  of  African  subordi 
nates,  —  to  be,  to  do,  and  to  suffer  all  this  from 
generation  to  generation,  and  come  off  at  the 
end  uncontaminated  with  any  considerable  traits 
of  African  character,  is  simply  impossible.  "Evil 
communications  corrupt  good  manners."  Two 
individuals  of  different  grades  of  moral  elevation 
and  improvement  can  hardly  be  brought  in  con 
tact,  to  any  considerable  extent,  without  each 
participating,  to  some  extent,  in  the  character  of 
the  other.  Two  masses  of  population,  of  differ 
ent  grades  of  civilization,  can  never  be  continu 
ously  interspersed,  as  are  the  whites  and  blacks 
in  one  of  the  Slave  States,  and  avoid  the  effi 
cient  action  of  that  natural  law  which  tends  to 
bring  both  to  a  common,  medium  level.  The 
more  degraded  will  be  elevated ;  the  more  ele 
vated  will  be  brought  down. 

Many  traits  of  character  which  have  been  thus 
imparted  to  the  white  from  the  colored  race,  *by 
long  and  familiar  intercommunication  in  the 
Slave  States,  it  would  be  invidious  to  specify. 
But  one  of  these,  if  possible,  more  prominent 
and  more  important  than  any  other,  it  is  neces 
sary  here  to  consider.  That  trait  is  AFRICAN  DES 
POTISM,  —  unmitigated  by  any  of  the  amenities  of 


AFRICAN  TITLES  IN  AMERICAN  HANDS.  63 

revealed  religion,  or  of  modern  learning  or  civil 
ization,  imported  in  the  form  of  masses  of  the 
vilest  barbarians,  and  participated  in  through 
the  medium  of  a  willing,  constant,  intimate,  and 
lifelong  intercommunication  by  the  white  race 
in  Slave  States. 

This,  as  all  other  forms  of  despotism,  neces 
sarily  exists  in  two  divisions, —  in  the  imperious 
usurpation  of  dictatorial  power  on  the  part  of  a 
few  over  the  many,  and  in  the  cringing  acqui 
escence  under  this  dictation,  on  the  part  of  the 
many.  One  of  these  divisions  cannot  long  exist 
without  the  other;  and  the  one  is  necessarily 
produced  and  propagated  by  the  presence  of  the 
other.  The  former,  or  usurping,  dictatorial  class 
were  not  imported  from  Africa.  These  were 
generated  on  the  spot  by  the  presence  of  the 
servile  masses.  Yet  the  rights  and  authority  in 
which  they  flourish  were  imported,  and  are  pure 
ly  African.  A  barbarous  father  sold  his  child  to 
the  brutal  slave-trader ;  a  bloody  chief  of  an 
abject  tribe  surprised  a  sleeping  village,  and, 
after  murdering  a  portion  of  its  inhabitants,  sold 
the  rest  to  the  slave-trader  for  rum  and  tobacco. 
Titles  thus  acquired  to  the  lifelong  services  of 
the  remotest  descendants  of  these  abject,  god 
less  captives,  are  transferred  to  an  American  mas 
ter,  and  in  these  he  flourishes ;  with  the  effect,  it 


64  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

is  true,  to  better  the  condition  of  the  slave,  for 
it  does  not  admit  of  being  made  worse ;  but  with 
the  effect  on  himself,  to  deprive  him  of  all  ability 
and  disposition  to  act  an  honest  part  as  a  citizen 
of  a  democratic  community,  in  supporting  the 
principles  and  institutions  of  popular  self-gov 
ernment,  or  to  understand  that,  looking  at  the 
matter  with  any  other  than  the  eyes  of  an  Afri 
can  despot,  it  is  not  only  undemocratic,  but  un 
utterably  mean,  cruel,  unjust,  and  dishonorable, 
to  recognize  any  such  title  as  that  by  which  the 
negro  is  held  in  bondage,  or  to  fatten  in  useless 
idleness  on  the  unrequited  toil  of  a  slave,  com 
pelled  to  labor  by  the  force  of  superior  intelli 
gence  and  combination. 

The  presence  of  these  abject  masses  of  Afri 
cans,  by  elevating  their  owners  into  the  position 
of  lords  and  nobles,  and  by  depriving  the  non- 
slave-holding  whites,  to  a  great  extent,  of  the 
usual  opportunities  of  productive  labor,  and  also 
by  rendering  labor  of  the  whites  disreputable, 
thereby  confining  down  the  non-slave-holding 
whites,  for  the  most  part,  to  a  state  of  hopeless 
poverty  and  idleness,  perfected  what  the  presence 
of  nobles  and  great  men  had  early  begun,  —  the 
separation  of  Southern  society  into  the  two  mon 
archical  grades  of  high  and  influential  few,  and 
low  and  uninfluential  many;  thus  sealing  and 


SLAVERY  ADVERSE  TO  FREE  SCHOOLS.      65 

rendering  perpetual   a   social  state  inimical  to 
democracy. 

The  blacks,  not  only  by  the  force  of  their  ex 
ample,  remaining  in  contented  ignorance,  but  by 
spreading  out  the  white  population  so  sparsely 
as  to  render  public  free  schools  ill-convenient 
for  children  to  attend,  contributed  much  to  pre 
vent  that  degree  of  general  intelligence  among 
the  whites,  without  which  affairs  of  government 
cannot  safely  be  intrusted  to  the  hands  of  the 
public  at  large. 

6* 


XI. 

THE  EFFECT  OF  SLAVERY  TO  COUNTERVAIL  THE  PROGRESS 
AND  PERFECTING  OF  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  FREE  GOVERN 
MENT  IN  THE  SOUTHERN  STATES,  EVEN  AMONG  THOSE  WHO 
HELD  THEIR  SLAVES  AT  FIRST  UNWILLINGLY. 

THE  last  chapter  was  to  have  completed  our 
notice  of  the  causes  that  acted  in  the  Southern 
States  to  stop  the  progress  of  those  sentiments 
of  freedom  which  had  cleared  the  North  of 
slaves.  The  closing  passages  of  that  chapter 
verged  upon  what  is  the  stated  aim  of  this, 
namely,  to  notice  the  effects  of  slavery  while  it 
was  retained,  to  counteract  the  growth  and  to 
turn  back  the  progress  of  the  principles  of  free 
government.  The  influence  exerted  on  the 
white  community  by  that  heathen  mass,  so  dis 
tributed  as  to  come  in  contact  with  them  at 
almost  every  point,  cannot  be  overestimated  in 
its  effect  of  imparting  to  American  minds  Afri 
can  opinions  and  sentiments  of  what  is  advan 
tageous,  what  is  proper,  and  what  is  right,  in 
regard  to  ownership,  by  one  man,  of  property  in 
the  life  and  services,  the  bone,  muscle,  and  brain, 
of  another.  The  whole  tone  and  spirit  of  the 


SLAVERY  AND   DESPOTISM  INSEPARABLE.  67 

Anglo-Saxon  mind  and  character  must  have  been 
degraded  and  demoralized  by  the  contaminating 
influence  of  heathen  associates  —  must  have  be 
come  essentially  Africanized  —  before  this  doc 
trine  of  property  in  man  could  have  been  per 
manently  introduced. 

But,  having  been  once  introduced,  approved 
of,  and  rendered  permanent,  it  requires  but  a 
glance  to  show  that  the  deepest,  darkest,  form 
of  despotism  had  been  planted  there,  so  that 
wherever  African  slavery  existed,  and  was  per 
manently  preferred  to  a  state  of  society  where 
all  are  free,  there  this  lowest  form  of  heathen  des 
potism  obtained  in  principle  and  in  practice,  and 
slavery  and  despotism  mutually  confirmed  each 
other,  and  both  necessarily  increased  and  ex 
tended,  till  they  reached  and  confronted  the 
vital  forces  of  a  sincere  democracy,  there  to 
rage  and  rave  and  perish,  as  they  are  now 
doing  in  the  existing  war. 

Much  of  American  slave-holding  is  to  be  at 
tributed  to  accident,  and  not  to  design  or  choice. 
In  such  cases,  principles  of  free  government 
were  held  and  cherished  sincerely,  and  without 
being  greatly  counteracted  by  the  unwilling,  ac 
cidental,  holding  of  the  relation  of  master.  Such 
was  the  case  of  Washington  himself,  of  Jefferson, 
of  Clay,  and  doubtless  of  the  vast  majority  of 


68  NATURAL  HISTORY  OP  SECESSION. 

slave-owners  in  the  latter  colonial  times,  and  in 
the  earty  history  of  the  States.  They  lacked 
only  opportunity,  a  sense  of  the  important  influ 
ence  slavery  was  secretly  exerting  against  free 
government,  and  a  more  energetic  enforcement 
of  their  own  hearty  preference  in  respect  to  it, 
to  have  freed  themselves  from  its  contaminating 
power.  These,  however,  they  lacked.  They 
sluggishly  acquiesced  in  its  continuance.  The 
degenerating,  degrading  influence  of  African  asso 
ciations  acted  on  their  descendants  more  and 
more  in  each  succeeding  generation,  until  the 
love  and  approbation  of  ownership  in  slaves  be 
gan  generally  to  prevail,  and  with  it  all  real  at 
tachment  to  the  principles  and  institutions  of 
free  government  were  silently  and  unconsciously, 
but  effectually  and  thoroughly,  undermined  and 
uprooted ;  and  every  one  became  unwittingly 
prepared  to  take  his  place  at  a  greater  or  less 
elevation  in  the  common  grading  of  subordi 
nates  beneath  a  despotic  head. 

I  say  every  one  became  unwittingly  thus  pre- 
pa.red ;  for  if  there  had  been  one  uncontaminated 
freeman  left,  he  would  have  pronounced  himself 
by  severing  that  despotic  head  from  the  shoul 
ders  on  which  it  was  sustained,  ere  the  meshes 
of  tyrannical  control  had  been  woven  around 
him,  and  his  bleeding  land  laid  desolate  merely 


SOUTHERN  UNIONISTS.  69 

to  save  that  head  from  being  severed.  Per 
haps  this  remark  should  be  modified  in  favor 
of  some  whom  compulsory  distance  or  prison 
walls  prevent  from  performing  the  desire  of 
their  hearts. 


XII. 

CONDITIONS  WHICH  SO  MODIFY  SLAVERY  AS  TO  ABATE  ITS 
INFLUENCE  IN  COUNTERACTING  THE  PROGRESS  OF  FREE 
PRINCIPLES. 

FROM  the  influence  of  climate,  rendering  the 
negroes  prolific  and  content,  and  the  whites 
averse  to  industry  and  toil ;  from  the  influence 
of  a  soil  so  rich  as  to  allow  the  thriftless  system 
to  continue ;  from  the  influence  of  the  numbers 
of  slaves,  rendering  emancipation  difficult  and 
hazardous ;  from  the  social  influence  of  the 
blacks,  acting  to  depress  and  Africanize  the 
civilization  of  the  whites,  and  to  import  and  im 
part  the  property-title,  and  the  type-African, 
which  is  the  lowest  form  of  despotism ;  and 
from  the  influence  of  the  numbers  of  the  blacks 
in  spreading  the  white  population  so  sparsely 
that  free  schools  could  not  be  maintained ;  and 
perhaps  from  the  influence  of  still  other  causes 
which  have  been  overlooked,  —  it  came  to  pass 
that  the  progress  of  the  principles  of  free 
government,  wrhich  had  abolished  slavery  in  the 
Northern  States,  was  stayed  at  Mason  &  Dixon's 
line.  Slavery  remained,  and  still  remains,  un- 

70 


DEMOCRACY  AND  SLAVERY    INCONGRUOUS.  71 

abolished,  and,  till  recently,  prospering  in  the 
Southern  States.  What  lies  before  us  now  is 
to  observe  in  detail  the  several  ways  in  which 
this  existing  institution  necessarily  acts  to  con 
vert  back  to  the  principles  of  political  despotism 
the  people  of  those  Southern  States  who  had 
once  given  in,  with  some  emphasis,  their  adher 
ence  to  the  principles  and  (as  far  as  white  per 
sons  are  concerned)  to  the  practices  of  civil 
freedom. 

And,  first,  we  are  reminded  by  the  language 
in  which  the  above  proposition  is  necessarily 
stated,  that  there  is,  and  must  be,  a  radical  incon 
gruity,  a  deep,  internal  self-contradiction  in  the 
pretence  of  adopting  or  adhering  to  the  princi 
ples  of  free  government  for  one  class  of  persons, 
while  the  same  franchise  is  totally  denied  to 
another  class  in  the  same  community,  -*-  the 
broadest,  free  government  for  whites,  and  the 
deepest,  darkest  despotism  for  blacks  in  the  same 
community,  and  on  the  same  soil. 

To  obviate  the  bad  appearance  and  bad  result 
of  this  unhappy  combination  of  despotism  and 
democracy  in  the  South,  it  is  to  be  remembered, 
as  already  remarked,  that  much  of  the  slave-hold 
ing,  as  in  the  case  of  Washington  and  his  com 
peers,  wras  accidental  and  without  any  sincere 
participation  in  the  governmental  principle 


72  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF   SECESSION. 

which  willing  and   persistent  slave-holding  in 
volves.* 

How  far  the  practice  of  slave-holding,  where 
the  principle  is  rejected,  will  act  gradually  and 
silently  to  corrupt  and  undermine  opinions  and 
preferences  favorable  to  free  government,  is 
a  question  that  we  cannot  definitely  decide. 
Where  the  unwilling  slave-holder  is  constantly 
occupied,  as  were  the  fathers  of  the  Republic,  in 
elaborating  the  form,  and  erecting  the  institu 
tions,  of  free  government,  the  presence  of  this 
odious  hulk  of  despotism  would,  doubtless,  pro 
voke  a  spirit  of  reaction  against  the  govern 
mental  principle  on  which  it  is  based.  But, 
where  the  actual  slave-owner,  though  favorable 
to  free  government,  is  left  unoccupied  by  any 
employment  that  puts  his  love  of  freedom  in 
active  and  trying  exercise,  although  that  love  of 
freedom  may  not  be  consciously  or  entirely  sub 
verted  by  the  practice  of  slave-holding,  yet  it 
will  not  be  strange  if  his  continual  practical 
acquiescence  in  a  system  which  he  disapproves 
should  have  the  effect  to  blunt  his  apprehension 
of  what  freedom  really  consists  in,  and  so  to 

*  Those  readers  who  are  disposed  to  pursue  a  definite  and  extended 
inquiry  into  the  expressed  views  of  the  fathers  and  founders  of  this  gov 
ernment,  on  the  subject  of  "  negroes  as  slaves,  as  citizens,  and  as  soldiers," 
will  find  the  material  for  such  investigation  collected  ready  to  their  hand, 
in  An  Historical  Research,  by  George  Livermore.  Boston:  A.  Williams 
&  Company,  18C3. 


UNFITNESS  OF  NEGROES  TO  BE  FREE.       73 

accustom  him  to  submit  to  doing  what  he  disap 
proves  that  he  would  at  length  be  found  to  be 
the  fit  man  to  enlist  under  the  rankest  despot, 
to  fight  for  the  "  LIBERTY  "  of  holding  oilier  men  in 
bondage.  But  there  is  still  a  very  wide  differ 
ence  between  the  willing  and  persistent,  and  the 
accidental  and  unwilling,  holding  of  slaves,  in 
respect  to  the  influence  which  slave-holding 
exerts  to  undemocratize  the  master. 

Besides  the  accidental  and  unwilling  character 
of  much  of  the  slave-holding  that  has  character 
ized  the  South,  one  other  condition  has  inter 
vened  essentially  to  modify  the  influence  which 
slave-holding  would  otherwise  exert  to  counter 
act  the  perfecting  and  the  spread  of  principles 
of  civil  freedom.  It  is  the  unfitness  of  the 
negro,  by  reason  of  ignorance  and  vice,  and  of 
his  low,  spiritless,  and  barbarian  traits,  either  to 
be  himself  profited  by  possessing  the  franchises 
of  freemen,  or  to  be  a  safe  or  useful  member  of 
a  democratic  community. 

There  is  no  denying  that  negroes  when  freshly 
imported  from  their  barbarous  African  homes,  — 
where,  according  to  the  best  of  testimony, "  nine- 
tenths  of  the  inhabitants  are  slaves  to  the  other 
tenth,"  -  -  are  utterly  unfit  to  be  intrusted  with 
the  privileges  of  free  citizenship  in  an  enlight- 

17 


74  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

ened  community.  And,  during  this  pupilage  of 
degraded  feebleness  and  ignorance,  which,  where 
large  masses  of  them  are  together,  may  last  for 
generations,  it  is  hardly  violating  the  principles 
of  civil  freedom,  to  hold  them  dependent  on 
masters  as  their  proper  guardians.  This  it  was 
that  rendered  slavery  in  colonial  and  Revolu 
tionary  times,  compatible  with  the  inception, 
growth,  and  all-conquering  progress  of  the  prin 
ciples  of  civil  freedom.  And  this,  together  with 
the  large  amount  of  unwilling  slave-holding  that 
existed  at  the  time  the  Constitution  was  adopted, 
rendered  the  authors  and  adopters  of  that  instru 
ment  so  little  concerned  about  the  anti-republi 
can  tendencies  of  the  institution  which  they 
neglected  to  extirpate. 


XIII. 

THE  GRADUAL  DEPARTURE  OF  THOSE  CONDITIONS  WHICH 
RENDERED  AFRICAN  SLAVERY  IN  AMERICA  MILD  IN  CHAR 
ACTER  AND  SLIGHT  IN  INFLUENCE  DURING  THE  FIRST 
CENTURY  OR  MORE  OF  ITS  EXISTENCE. 

HISTORICAL  events  of  the  highest  magnitude 
and  importance  often  fail  to  be  appreciated, 
because  they  take  place  gradually.  Such  was 
the  case  in  the  transition  of  negro  slavery,  by 
which  it  passed  from  the  mild,  accidental  form, 
which  marked  the  first  century  or  more  of  its 
existence  in  this  country,  to  the  positiveness  and 
virulence  of  its  character  in  later  years.  Had 
the  boundaries  of  the  original  colonies  remained 
unchanged,  had  the  early  character  of  our  com 
mercial  exports  not  altered,  and  the  political 
arena  been  free  from  agitation  on  the  subject  of 
slavery,  then  might  the  action  of  the  institution, 
in  respect  to  its  influence  on  our  peculiar  civil 
system,  have  remained  harmless  as  at  first.  But. 
unfortunately,  neither  of  these  conditions  of 
its  harmlessness  was  preserved.  Our  Western 
boundaries  were  extended  until  they  embraced 
additional  territory  enough  for  a  magnificent 

75 


76  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

empire,  of  the  richest  of  soils,  and  under  the 
same  Southern  sun.  This  gave  to  slaves  a  value 
that  they  never  possessed  in  colonial  times,  and 
added  new  rivets  to  the  bondage  that  previously 
appeared  almost  ready  to  fall  off  of  its  own 
accord.  Next  came,  gradually,  the  discoveries, 
that  cotton  was  one  of  the  most  desirable  textile 
staples  in  the  world,  that  every  human  being 
wanted  it,  in  no  stinted  supply,  for  clothing,  and 
could  afford  to  pay  well,  according  to  his  means, 
rather  than  be  deprived  of  its  use,  that  the  soil 
and  climate  of  the  Southern  States,  with  this 
newly-acquired  Southern  territory,  were  best 
adapted  of  any  known  to  the  production  of  this 
desired  staple,  and  that  slave-labor  was  better 
adapted  to  its  cultivation  than  to  any  other 
known  branch  of  industry.  Next  came  the  im 
provements  in  machinery  for  the  cleaning  and 
manufacture  of  cotton,  which  increased  the  de 
mand  for  it  ten  thousand  fold.  The  market 
money-value  of  negro  slaves  rose  five  hundred 
per  cent,  and  settled  forever,  on  the  wrong  side, 
the  question  whether  the  spreading  application 
of  the  principles  of  free  government  should 
peaceably  progress  any  farther  in  opposition  to 
the  sway  of  this  darkest  form  of  African  des 
potism. 

Now  was  the  time,  as  soon  as  the  above  facts 


NORTHERN  QUIETUDE.  77 

became  developed,  to  have  recognized  a  state 
of  irreconcilable  war  between  slave-holders  and 
their  adherents  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  up 
holders  of  the  principles  on  which  the  civil  insti 
tutions  of  our  country  had  been  founded,  on 
the  other  hand.  But  the  inherent  imbecility  of 
popular  governments,  as  compared  with  mon 
archies,  in  respect  to  matters  of  war  and  self- 
defence  ;  the  cupidity  of  those  at  the  North 
who  contrived  to  share  in  the  profits  of  lucrative 
slave-holding,  and  the  intrigue  of  the  slave-hold 
ers  to  keep  everything  quiet  until  they  could 
corrupt  the  Northern  people,  and  grasp  the  reins 
of  power  in  the  general  government,  all  wrought 
together  to  prevent  alarm,  until  the  designs  of 
despotism  had  progressed  so  far  that,  in  the 
estimation  of  disinterested  European  statesmen 
and  observers,  the  fate  of  free  governments  in 
general,  and  of  the  United  States  in  particular, 
was  sealed,  before  the  people  of  the  Northern 
States  allowed  themselves  to  believe  that  any 
thing  was  seriously  amiss  with  them. 

While  the  area  of  fertile  Southern  territory 
was  being  extended,  and  the  enormous  and 
lucrative  business  of  cotton  production  was  being 
developed,  and  the  pecuniary  value  of  slaves 
was  being  doubled  over  and  over  again,  thus  fix 
ing  them  in  their  state  of  bondage  beyond  the 

7* 


78      ,  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

hope  of  any  peaceable  release  or  relaxation,  an 
other  change  was  silently  and  gradually  taking 
place,  which  enhanced  the  tyrannical  and  op 
pressive  nature  of  their  bondage,  about  in  the 
same  proportion  in  which  its  perpetuity  became 
inevitable.  This  was,  the  growing  intelligence, 
civilization,  and  Christian  enlightenment,  of  the 
negroes,  which  fitted  them  daily  more  and  more 
to  enjoy  the  privileges,  and  to  discharge  the 
duties,  of  freemen ;  thereby  rendering  it  daily  a 
greater  and  greater  outrage  on  the  principles 
of  free  government  to  hold  them  in  servitude. 

We  have  before  remarked  that  where  two 
masses  of  population,  of  different  degrees  of 
elevation  and  enlightenment,  were  thrown  to 
gether  on  terms  of  intimate  and  constant  inter 
change,  the  result  must  be,  not  only  that  the 
more  elevated  would  be  brought  down,  but  the 
more  degraded  would  be  elevated,  until  a  common 
medium  level  should  have  been  reached  by  each. 
The  master  may  designedly  and  systematically 
withhold  from  his  slave  the  art  of  reading,  and 
all  instruction  tending  to  his  enlightenment  and 
elevation  ;  but  it  is  not  within  the  power  of  that 
master  to  prevent  the  slave  from  learning  a 
lesson  for  his  improvement  every  time  he  looks 
on,  or  listens  to,  a  person  more  intelligent,  more 
civilized,  or  more  a  Christian,  than  himself.  This 


NEGRO  IMPROVEMENT  AND   ITS  RESULTS.  79 

course  of  improvement  must  go  on,  on  the  part 
of  the  blacks,  until  their  masters,  and  those 
whites  with  whom  they  come  in  contact,  in  their 
downward  course,  come  to  a  level  where  the 
two  grades  of  civilization  meet,  and  the  negro 
has  no  more  of  civilization,  manhood,  or  Christi 
anity,  to  learn  of  his  once  superior  master.  In 
proportion  as  the  negro  thus  becomes  elevated, 
intelligent,  and  fit  for  freedom,  the  policy  and 
the  practice  that  confine  him  down 'to  servi 
tude  become  bereft  of  palliation,  and  stand 
out  in  active  and  confessed  hostility  to  the 
principles  of  all  free  government. 


XIV. 

THE  ULTIMATE,  POSITIVE,  AND  EFFICIENT,  ACTION  OF  SLAVE- 
HOLDING  IN  RADICALLY  CONVERTING  THE  SENTIMENTS  OF 
THE  SOUTHERN  PEOPLE  BACK  FROM  DEMOCRACY  TO  DES 
POTISM. 

SERIOUS  and  important  occupation  has  a  pow 
erful  influence  in  moulding  the  sentiments  of 
one  who  is  heartily  occupied  therein.  The  try 
ing  labors  and  sacrifices  of  the  Revolutionary 
struggle,  with  the  discussions  which  preceded 
and  followed  them,  acted  strongly  to  generate 
and  confirm  a  love  of  freedom  in  the  hearts 
of  those,  on  the  American  side,  by  whom  these 
toils  and  sacrifices  were  sustained.  The  pe 
riod  which  we  are  now  about  to  consider  is 
one  in  which  such  occupations  and  their  in 
fluence  have  long  since  passed  away.  The 
enervating,  corrupting,  influences  of  protract 
ed  peace  and  unexampled  affluence  have  suc 
ceeded  to  the  struggles  and  hardships  of  Revo 
lutionary  and  colonial  times.  The  pursuit  of 
personal  aggrandizement  has  succeeded  to  an 
absorbing  interest  in  the  nation's  welfare.  In 
those  States  where  slavery  never  extensively 


THE  RISE   AND   VIRULENCE   OP  SLAVERY.  81 

existed,  and  has  been  abolished,  agriculture, 
mechanics,  and  every  industrial  pursuit,  are  fol 
lowed  with  an  earnestness  and  success  unparal 
leled  under  monarchical  government. 

In  those  States  where  slavery  still  flourishes, 
supine  submissiveness  to  ignorance  and  poverty 
and  the  domination  of  the  few,  seizes  on  the 
many ;  while  the  possession  and  management  of 
acres  and  of  slaves,  and  the  influence  and  emolu 
ments  of  public  office,  form  the  objects  of  suc 
cessful  aspiration  to  the  few,  —  the  "  master 
race,"  as  some  of  their  public  orators  have  the 
modesty  to  call  themselves. 

The  palliation  of  slavery,  that  grew  out  of 
the  unfitness  of  the  negroes  for  freedom,  has 
largely  passed  away.  The  comparative  in 
difference  with  which  slave-owners  formerly 
regarded  their  right  of  property  in  the  slave, 
owing  to  their  small  pecuniary  value,  and  to 
the  ugly  incongruity  between  the  master's 
claims  for  freedom  for  himself,  and  for  secure 
bondage  for  his  negro,  has  also  passed  away. 
His  African  associations  have  implanted  in  the 
mind  of  the  master  an  opinion  favorable  to  the 
justice  and  propriety  of  his  claim  on  the  ser 
vices  of  his  slave.  The  increased  numbers  of 
his  fellow-slave-holders,  and  the  increased  age 
of  the  institution,  confirm  the  same  opinion,  and 


82  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

quiet  feelings  of  uneasiness  respecting  the  incon 
gruity  of  his  claims.  The  enlarged  bounds  of 
fertile  slave  territory  dispel  apprehensions  of 
trouble  from  the  impoverishment  of  the  soil ; 
and  the  lucrativeness  of  cotton-raising  insures 
him.  large  pecuniary  returns,  either  for  raising 
cotton  or  for  raising  slaves.  Now  what  a  school 
is  this  in  which  to  learn  democracy,  and  perfect 
these  preferences  for  popular  freedom  which  are 
not  mature!*  At  the  same  time  and  in  the  same 
proportion  in  which  negroes  have  become  more 
fitted  to  be  free,  and  their  labor  has  become 
more  valuable,  arose  the  necessity  for  guarding 
against  insurrection,  and  for  systematic  legisla 
tion  and  police  regulations,  rendering  this  kind 
of  property  secure.  Laws  had  to  be  passed  by 
each  State,  prohibiting  the  instruction  of  slaves, 
lest  their  learning  should  render  them  more  de 
sirous  of  freedom,  more  competent  to  secure  it, 
and  more  accessible  to  the  approaches  of  de- 

*  The  term  republic,  though  sometimes  used  as  substantially  synonymous 
with  democracy,  may  with  propriety  be  applied  to  a  republic  of  slave 
holders,  or  a  leagued  band  of  aristocrats.  So  far  as  the  latter  is  its  true 
import,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  its  provision  that  the 
government  of  each  several  State  shall  be  republican,  simply  covers  up 
the  seeds  of  its  own  destruction.  So  far  as  the  import  of  the  word  is 
synonymous  with  democracy,  this  provision  of  the  general  Constitution 
has  been  violated  every  time  a  Slave  State  has  been  admitted  to  the  Union. 
Democracy  and  Despotism  divide  the  universe  of  civil  affairs  between  them. 
There  is  and  can  be  no  middle  ground  that  will  not,  of  necessity,  soon  merge 
itself  hi  the  one  or  the  other. 


SLAVE   INTERESTS   CONSOLIDATE.  83 

signing  disturbers  of  the  patriarchal  system. 
Also,  laws  by  each  State  prohibiting  emancipa 
tion  within  its  bounds,  and  the  ingress  of  free 
negroes  ;  lest  individual  owners,  who  felt  averse 
to  slave-trading,  should  free  vicious  negroes,  to 
save  themselves  the  most  unpleasant  task  of  con 
trolling  them,  and  the  number  and  character  of 
the  free  colored  population  should  thereby  be 
come  such  as  to  make  slaves  uneasy,  and  en 
danger  the  public  safety.  Thus  slave-holding 
became  more  and  more  consolidated  into  a  sys 
tem,  and  the  individual  owner  became  less  and 
less  at  liberty  to  pursue  any  course  which  was 
not  dictated  by  regard  for  the  interests  and 
quiet  of  all  slave-holders. 

The  effect  of  this  consolidation  —  the  imposed 
necessity  of  acting  together  for  the  protection 
of  an  imperilled  interest  —  was  not  only  a  great 
advance  toward  monarchy  ;  itself  constitutes 
a  great  essential  element  of  monarchy. 

It  was  the  necessity  of  defending  national  ex 
istence  amidst  menacing  or  actually  hostile  na 
tions  that  first  induced  the  prevalence  of  mon 
archy.  Produce  one  great,  all-absorbing  interest 
of  a  class,  or  section,  even  in  a  republic,  and  let 
it  be  surrounded  by  sentiments  and  interests 
adverse  to  its  prosperity,  and  you  have  got  a 
consolidation  of  peculiar  interests.  You  will 


84  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

soon  have,  on  the  part  of  their  holders,  a  una 
nimity  of  views  and  a  willing  acquiescence  in 
anything  which  promises  to  subserve  and  render 
those  peculiar  and  imperilled  interests  secure. 
You  have  got  seven-tenths  of  all  that  is  requi 
site  to  a  monarchy,  and  the  other  three-tenths 
cannot,  from  the  nature  of  things,  be  long  want 
ing.  It  was  this  unanimity,  resulting  from  neces 
sary  consolidation  on  this  peculiar  interest,  that 
gave  to  some  60,000  Southern  slave-holders  a 
perpetually  preponderating  influence  in  the  af 
fairs  of  the  general  government,  which  neither 
one  nor  all  of  the  varying  political  interests,  and 
combinations  of  half  as  many  millions  of  other 
population  have  been  able  to  countervail. 

Combinations  on  an  imperilled  interest  like 
this,  are  necessarily  fatal  to  any  republic,  not 
itself  entirely  comprehended  in  the  combina 
tion. 

Had  the  stakes  involved  in  the  preservation 
of  slavery  been  of  less  pecuniary  value,  or  had 
the  principles  and  practices  of  slavery  been  less 
repugnant  to  everything  around  them,  then 
had  the  consolidation  been  less  constraining,  and 
the  results  less  decisive.  Had  the  interests  of 
slave-holders  remained  unimportant  as  at  the 
time  of  the  Revolution,  then  had  they  remained 
as  harmless.  But  the  unexpected  and  unex- 


THE  WAR  NECESSITATED.  85 

ampled  rise  of  the  importance  of  slave-holders' 
interests,  taking  place  contemporaneously  with 
the  spread  and  maturing  of  the  principles  and 
forms  of  free  government,  developed  the  latent 
antagonism  of  the  two  systems,  and  necessitated 
the  present  war,  which  might  have  been  calcu 
lated  years  ago,  by  any  skilful  and  clear-minded 
statesman,  with  as  much  certainty  as  the  astrono 
mer  calculates  an  eclipse. 


XV. 

ARGUMENT  DEFINED,  AND  FORCES  POINTED  OUT  AS  THEY 
APPEAR  IN  HISTORY,  WHICH  FORCES  HAVE  FORMED  AND 
STIMULATED  OUR  SOUTHERN  BRETHREN  TO  THEIR  PRESENT 
ONSLAUGHT  ON  ALL  DEMOCRACY. 

BESIDES  obtaining  a  just  apprehension  of  the 
influence  of  slavery  in  general,  to  counteract  the 
progress  of  free  government,  we  are  here  to 
examine  the  influence  in  this  direction  of  African 
slavery  as  it  exists  in  this  country,  and  also  as  it 
has  existed  during  recent  years,  in  contradistinc 
tion  from  the  same  as  it  existed  at  and  before 
the  founding  of  our  free  institutions.  The  ques 
tion  obtrudes  itself  for  answer,  Why  has  the  insti 
tution  which  at,  and  prior  to,  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  exerted  little  or  no  influence  adverse 
to  the  rise  and  establishment  of  civil  freedom, 
since  exerted  so  powerful  an  influence  as  to  con 
vert  back  again  to  principles  of  the  darkest  des 
potism  the  sons  of  sires  who,  amidst  the  acting 
of  the  same  slavery  system,  suffered  and  bled  for 
freedom?  The  answer  is  to  be  found  in  the 
altered  action  of  the  system.  At  the  same  time 
that  slaves  and  their  labor  have  risen  enormously 

86 


POLITICAL   EFFECT   OF  SLAVERY.  87 

in  money  value,  and  a  stringent  and  powerful 
police  system  has  had  to  be  everywhere  put  in 
operation  for  the  security  of  this  peculiar  species 
of  property,  the  slaves  themselves,  having  ad 
vanced  greatly  in  attaining  the  language,  senti 
ments,  intelligence,  and  civilization  of  their  mas 
ters,  feel  more  and  more  keenly  the  wrong  that 
is  done  them  by  the  system,  and  react  against  it 
with  more  pressing  and  perpetual  elasticity. 

The  fact  that  no  arguments  are  heard  from 
their  lips  against  the  policy  of  their  enslavement, 
that  few  fights  are  made  by  them  to  demonstrate 
their  unwillingness  to  remain  longer  enslaved, 
that  only  now  and  then  a  plot  is  discovered  for 
a  general  rising  to  free  themselves,  does  not 
prove  that  there  is  no  strong  and  ceaseless  pres 
sure  on  their  part  against  the  confines  that  cir 
cumscribe  their  freedom  ;  they  rather  prove  the 
success  with  which  their  masters  have  learned 
the  arts  that  despots  use  to  keep  their  victims  in 
subjugation.  It  is  not  our  object  here  to  discuss 
the  right  or  wrong  of  slavery.  That  there  is 
such  a  distinction,  and  that  it  is  important  to  be 
attended  to,  we  freely  admit ;  but  that  is  not  the 
theme  of  these  remarks.  These  pages  are  not 
intended  to  contain  an  essay  on  morals  or  reli 
gion  ;  they  profess  to  deal  with  politics  purely ; 
and  with  these  only  in  reference  to  despotism 
and  democracy,  and  the  relations  or  repulsions 


88  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

that  necessarily  exist  between  them.  Of  this 
subject  we  treat,  as  it  applies  to,  and  is  illustrated 
by,  the  past  history  and  present  condition  of 
affairs  in  the  United  States, —  the  home  and  seat 
of  the  only  permanent  democratic  government 
the  history  of  the  world  has  yet  presented. 
Therefore,  when  we  speak  of  the  stringent  legis 
lation  and  police  arrangements  that  have  been 
gradually  built  up  around  the  slaves  to  keep 
them  safe,  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  pro 
portion  in  which  the  money- value  of  these  slaves 
has  gradually  and  enormously  increased ;  and 
while  we  speak  of  the  gradually  increasing  fit 
ness  of  the  slaves  for  freedom,  and  their  conse 
quently  increasing  desire  and  demand  for  free 
dom,  which  takes  place  at  the  same  time  that  the 
provisions  for  keeping  them  securely  in  bondage 
are  tightened  and  strengthened,  our  object  is  not 
to  direct  attention  to  the  moral  crime  of  slavery 
at  all,  but  purely  to  present  the  fact  of  the  per 
petually  increasing  intensity  of  the  conflict 
between  slavery  and  freedom,  between  despot 
ism  and  democracy,  —  the  development  of  the 
latent  and  necessary  conflict  on  the  part  of  the 
negroes  to  be  free,  and  on  the  part  of  the  mas 
ters  to  retain  them  in  secure  and  profitable  sub 
servience  to  their  lust  of  power  and  of  gain. 
Our  object  in  turning  attention  to  the  constantly 
increasing  intensity  of  this  conflict  is  not  to  show 


NEGROES  TAUGHT  DEMOCRACY.  89 

the  cruelty  or  the  moral  wrong  of  keeping  the 
negroes  still  in  servitude,  but  to  point  out  the 
tremendous  and  necessary  effect  of  the  perpet 
ually  intensifying  strife  to  mature  and  perfect 
those  masters,  and  such  as  are  acting  with  them, 
in  the  spirit  and  the  precepts,  the  principles  and 
practices,  of  despotism, — of  exercising  despotic 
and  dictatorial  control  over  their  fellow-men. 

Among  the  smaller  changes  that  have  taken 
place,  which  have  contributed  to  make  up  the 
whole  great  sum  of  altered  circumstances  which 
give  to  slavery,  as  it  recently  existed,  an  hun 
dred-fold  the  power  it  once  possessed  to  despotize 
American  democracy,  is  that  mutual  exchange 
by  which  not  only  has  the  African  imparted  to 
his  American  master  much  of  his  barbaric  char 
acter,  and  especially  his  native  leanings  toward 
the  darkest  form  of  despotism,  but  in  return  has 
received  not  only  gradual  enlightenment,  civil 
ization,  and  Christianity,  but  also  a  preference 
and  fitness  for  the  institutions  of  free  govern 
ment.  The  history  of  the  freed  slaves  colonized 
in  Liberia  demonstrates  this.  And  the  possess 
ing  of  this  predisposition  for  free  government, 
which  they  could  have  acquired  nowhere  but  in 
this  country,  makes  their  bondage  more  grievous 
to  them,  and  their  reaction  against  imposed 
restraints  more  incessant  and  intense. 

6* 


XVI. 

\ 

THE  ABOVE  DEFINED  ARGUMENT  PRESENTED  IN  DETAIL  —  THE 
MOULDING  PRESSURE  CONTINUALLY  RESTING  ON  THOSE 
WHO  FEEL  THEMSELVES  RESPONSIBLE  FOR  THE  PRESERVA 
TION  OF  QUIET  IN  THE  SLAVE  STATES  — ITS  EFFECT. 

WE  now  propose  to  examine  more  in  detail  the 
practical  workings  of  those  principles,  and  that, 
too,  under  the  circumstances  which  we  have 
above  stated  and  defined. 

The  negroes  have  now  come  to  be  three  or 
four  millions.  The  price  of  a  field-hand  has 
risen  from  its  former  range  of  from  one  to  three 
hundred  dollars  to  cotton-planting  value  of  from 
ten  to  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  and  a  ready  cash 
sale  at  that.  What  is  the  mode  of  operating  to 
render  this  amount  of  property  secure  and  pro 
ductive? 

The  whole  power  of  the  United  States  army 
and  navy  is  understood  to  stand  pledged  to  sup 
press  insurrection  and  to  return  fugitive  slaves. 

There  is  then  some  danger  that  large  or  small 
portions  of  this  valuable  property  shall  make 
use  of  its  legs  and  run  away.  There  is  also 
danger,  —  grave  enough,  in  the  incipient  stage 

90 


PRESSURE   OF   PERIL   ON  SLAVE-MASTERS.  91 

in  which  the  peril  existed  seventy-live  years  ago, 
to  deserve  a  constitutional  provision,  —  that  this 
intelligent  property,  of  which  "  its  follies  and 
its  crimes  have  stamped  it  man,"  should  take  to 
itself  the  weapons  of  vengeance  and  inflict  im 
mense  sufferings  on  those  whom  it  supposes  to 
be  the  authors  of  its  conscious  wrongs. 

This  danger  is  no  less  than  the  danger  of 
losing  an  aggregate  of  twenty-six  hundred  mil 
lions  of  dollars'  worth  of  property,  and  of  the 
devastation  of  a  greater  or  less  portion  of  the 
soil  of  the  Southern  States,  with  the  slaughter  of 
its  white  inhabitants.  These  surely  are  grave 
perils,  and  the  weight  of  them  is  sufficient  of 
itself  to  make  despots  of  as  many  men  as  are 
left  to  feel  that  the  responsibility  of  providing 
against  these  perils  rests  upon  themselves. 

The  strain  and  pressure  of  such  a  responsibility 
is  probably  entirely  beyond  the  comprehension  of 
one  who  has  been  born  and  educated  in  the  con 
fiding  quiet  and  equal  privileges  of  democratic 
civilization.  Such  an  one  has  no  experience  in 
his  history  in  which  to  find  a  simile  that  would 
parallel  for  an  hour  the  strain  of  this  life-long 
responsibility  that  rests  more  or  less  sensibly  on 
every  intelligent  and  habitual  dweller  in  a  slave- 
holding  community,  but  more  sensibly  and  im 
mediately  on  the  slave-holder  himself  who  has 


92  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

a  wife  and  children,  parents,  brothers,  sisters,  and 
friends,  involved  with  him  in  the  same  more  or 
less  imminent  peril.  One,  from  prodigality  or 
moral  refinement,  may  divest  himself  of  any 
desire  or  esteem  for  the  pecuniary  value  repre 
sented  by  property  which  statutes  of  the  country 
recognize  and  guarantee  in  slaves;  but  the  ter 
rible  consequences  of  permitting  or  provoking 
any  extensive  struggle  on  their  part  to  free 
themselves  must  appall  the  stoutest  heart  that  is 
not  prepared  to  sport  with  wide-spread  devasta 
tion  and  human  suffering  and  slaughter. 

With  this  standing  peril  ever  hanging  over 
them,  it  may  at  first  be  supposed,  that  the  South 
ern  mind  had  become  callous  to  its  force  ;  but 
history,  and  somewhat  extended  personal  obser 
vation,  have  convinced  the  author  that,  from  the 
passion-kindling  influence  of  the  climate,  from 
the  absence  of  other  things  to  displace  this  from 
the  attention,  or  from  other  causes,  the  fear  of 
slave  insurrection,  instead  of  being  deadened  by 
use,  remains  extremely  vivid,  if  it  does  not  grow 
increasingly  so,  in  the  majority  of  Southern 
minds.  I  knew  the  ladies  of  an  extensive  neigh 
borhood,  in  a  Slave  State,  with  scarcely  any 
exception,  to  pass  a  week  of  sleepless  anxiety 
and  fear,  because  they  heard  a  rumor  that  some 


FORM   OF  CHARACTER  WROUGHT  BY  PERIL.          93 

barges  filled  with  negroes  were  seen  to  pass  a 
neighboring  river. 

Accustomed  from  infancy  to  revel  in  the 
broadest  liberty  that  ever  was  coupled  with  the 
sweets  of  civilization,  comparatively  few  men  in 
the  Northern  States  are  acquainted  with  any 
object  of  fear,  in  heaven,  earth,  or  hell,  that  is 
capable  of  imposing  on  them  the  practical 
restraint  which  the  slave-holder,  and  those  con 
nected  with  him,  ordinarily  feel,  from  the  fear 
of  a  slave  insurrection.*  It  is  an  imposed  re 
straint  which  they  never  question,  never  par 
ley  with.  Its  dominion  over  them  is  absolute. 
And  one  of  the  functions  of  this  absolute  alle 
giance  is,  never  to  allow  its  authority  to  be  ques 
tioned  by  others,  within  their  borders  or  with 
out  them,  so  far  as  they  have  the  power  to 
prevent. 

His  Creator  —  and  it  is  rare  to  find  a  Southern 
man  who  questions  either  his  existence  or  his 
claims  —  may  or  may  not  be  obeyed.  That  is 
a  matter  which  every  individual  is  perfectly  free 
to  exercise  his  own  preference  upon.  The  au- 

*  The  tens  of  thousands  of  lives,  and  the  hundreds  of  millions  of  money, 
which  the  existing  war  is  yearly  extorting  from  the  Northern  people,  has 
roused  in  few  if  any  of  the  minds  of  the  millions  who  remain  at  home,  the 
amount  of  serious  earnestness  and  persistent  devotion  which  instantly  took 
possession  of  the  mind  of  each  intelligent  Southerner,  the  moment  he  was 
called  to  contemplate  a  serious  disturbance  of  the  power-imposed  quiet  of 
their  slaves. 


94  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

thority  of  the  country's  laws  and  government, 
every  one  is  usually  considered  at  liberty  to 
regard  or  disregard  as  he  pleases.  So  also  with 
the  claims  of  truth,  justice,  and  humanity.  But 
any  risk  of  raising  a  slave  insurrection  is  not  to 
be  incurred,  come  what  will. 

What  is  a  republic,  what  is  a  democracy, 
under  such  circumstances?  What,  but  a  con 
ventional  equality  of  command  in  a  community 
of  despots? 

Twenty-six  senators,  and  three  or  four  times 
that  number  of  representatives  from  the  South 
ern  States,  assemble  annually  at  the  national 
capitol,  professedly  to  legislate  for  the  benefit 
of  the  common  population  of  the  whole  country, 
and  under  oath  to  support  the  common  govern 
ment;  but,  in  reality,  a  leagued  band,  trained 
and  disciplined  under  recognized  leaders,  armed 
with  side-arms  of  the  carnal  sort,  and  with  all 
the  panoply  of  rhetoric,  logic,  sophistry,  parlia 
mentary  tactics,  diplomatic  guile,  political  effron 
tery,  and  county-court  tergiversation.  But  what 
are  they  there  to  do  ?  One  thing,  —  the  same 
that  they  have  done  from  infancy,  and  will  con 
tinue  to  do  as  long  as  breath  is  in  them  and 
they  have  the  power  of  voluntary  motion,  —  the 
thing  which  will  be  done  effectually  in  those 
legislative  halls  and  elsewhere,  wherever  these 


SLAVE-HOLDERS   AS   GENERAL    LEGISLATORS.  95 

men  are  found,  their  own  oaths,  and  the  learn 
ing,  the  logic,  the  rights,  and  the  numbers  of 
their  opponents  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding, 
viz. :  see  to  it  that  the  absolute  and  practically 
unlimited  despotic  power  of  masters  over  their 
slaves  remains  undisturbed,  unapproached  by 
any  unfriendly  restriction,  check,  or  limitation ; 
see  that  no  law  is  passed,  and  no  act  unrebuked, 
unrevenged,  is  performed,  that  would  in  the 
remotest  manner  encourage  a  slave  to  run  away 
from  his  master,  or  inspire  in  the  negroes,  as  a 
class,  the  faintest  gleam  of  hope  or  expectation 
that  their  oppressed  condition  is  to  be  ameliorat 
ed.  In  other  words,  the  one  unvarying  task  of 
those  assembled  legislators  from  the  Southern 
States  —  the  thing  which  they  will  be  perfectly 
sure  to  see  accomplished  at  all  times  and  in  all 
places,  and  despite  all  difficulties  and  opposition 
—  is  to  provide  that  the  dominion  of  that  malign 
divinity,  the  presiding  genius  of  slave-holding, 
the  very  soul  and  essence  of  the  darkest,  deep 
est,  and  most  damning,  form  of  despotism,  before 
whom  they  have  bowed  down  and  worshipped 
all  their  lives,  and  (though  less  devoutly)  their 
fathers  before  them,  remains  unmolested,  unin- 
fringed  upon.  This  worship  they  pay  and  this 
service  they  perform,  not  more  because  they 
love  to  than  because  they  must.  To  escape  the 


96  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

inexorable  exigency  of  the  position  in  which 
they  have  been  born,  requires  a  breadth  of  com 
prehension,  ability,  and  benevolence,  which  prob 
ably  it  is  not  possible  should  be  generated  in 
the  walks  of  slave-holders. 


XVII. 

INTENSITY  OF  THE  ANTAGONISM  BETWEEN  THE  PRINCIPLES 
OF  FREE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  PRINCIPLES  ON  WHICH 
SLAVES  ARE  GOVERNED  —  THE  LATTER  ANALYZED  —  THE 
PRECEPT  —  THE  PENALTY CHECKS  ON  THE  LATTER. 

WHY  have  the  upbuildings  and  outgrowths  of 
institutions  of  benevolence,  philanthropy,  reli 
gion,  and  missionary  zeal,  which  have  preemi 
nently  characterized,  adorned,  and  blessed,  our 
common  land,  giving  the  powerful  weight  of 
their  testimony  in  favor  of  the  beneficent  influ 
ence  of  free  government,  been  able  to  accom 
plish  so  little  in  mitigating  the  severe  exactions 
made  upon  the  Southern  slave,  —  in  softening 
the  sharp  iron  of  the  despotism  which  has  this 
prone  servitude  for  its  base  ? 

The  answer  is  found  in  the  same  facts  that 
account  for  the  turning  back  of  the  wave  of 
free  principles,  which,  sweeping  from  the  North, 
extinguished  slavery  in  one-half  of  the  original 
States. 

The  opportunity  to  peaceably  abolish  slavery 
from  the  Southern  States  presented  itself  at  the 
time  of  the  adoption  of  the  present  form  of  our 

9  97 


98  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

general  government.  But  it  was  an  opportu 
nity  that  soon  passed,  to  return  no  more.  The 
latent  antagonism  that  existed  between  the 
principles  of  despotism  and  democracy  became 
rapidly  developed  by  the  constantly  irritating 
contact  of  the  two,  and  it  soon  became  impos 
sible  to  modify  either,  until  the  one  should  be 
extinguished  utterly  by  the  armed  and  bloody 
triumph  of  the  other.  As  well  might  one  go 
on  a  mission  of  peace  to  the  eternal  abode  of 
devils  and  damned  spirits,  expecting  to  harmo 
nize  their  jarring  strifes,  and  to  produce  an 
enduring  compromise  between  the  conflicting 
passions  of  those  who  there  abide,  as  think 
effectually  to  obviate  or  compromise  the  conflict 
that  has  raged  in  this  country  for  the  last  half- 
century,  for  the  most  part  with  unbloody  weap 
ons,  but  which  has  now  assumed  the  more  natu 
ral  and  effective  form  of  fierce  and  bloody,  not 
to  say  exterminating,  war.  Any  truce,  or  com 
promise,  or  compact,  or  division  of  territory, 
that  could  be  agreed  upon,  would  of  necessity 
be  only  the  inauguration  of  interminable,  vexa 
tious,  bloody,  and  disastrous,  hostilities. 

Look  at  the  mode  of  operation  by  which  mur 
murs  are  quieted,  and  aspirations  after  freedom 
suppressed,  by  masters  among  their  slaves.  In 


PRECEPT  AND  PENALTY  FOB  SLAVES.       99 

doing  this,  we  may  as  well  start  with  the  prac 
tice  at  its  origin,  in  Africa,  where  "  nine-tenths 
of  the  population  are  slaves  to  the  other  tenth,"  # 
where  the  lives  of  slaves  are  held  at  so  cheap  a 
rate,  that  they  are  slaughtered  by  hundreds, 
as  a  token  of  respect  to  a  deceased  monarch. 
There,  we  need  not  be  told,  that  physical  suffer 
ings,  unto  permanent  maiming,  and  the  death 
penalty,  are  inflicted  without  stint,  wherever 
and  whenever  the  owner  of  a  slave  supposes  he 
has  any  occasion  to  inflict  them.  In  the  hands 
of  the  slave-trader  who  brings  them  across  the 
ocean,  or  buys  them  to  sell  again  after  they  ar 
rive,  the  same  mode  of  government  prevails, 
mitigated  by  nothing  but  the  increased  pecuni 
ary  value  of  the  slave,  and  the  corresponding 
pecuniary  loss,  in  case  of  crippling  or  killing 
him,  as  he  approaches  the  plantation  wThere  he 
is  to  spend  his  life  of  labor. 

When  arrived  on  that  plantation,  and  fixed  in 
his  condition  for  life,  and  for  the  lives  of  his  pos 
terity  after  him,  the  precept  by  which  he  is,  and 
is  to  be,  governed  is  still  the  will  and  pleasure 
of  his  owner,  and  the  penalty  of  violating  that 
precept  is  physical  suffering,  restrained  only  by 
the  pecuniary  estimation  in  which  he  is  held, 

*  This  statement  is  quoted  verbally  from  Commodore   Gregory,  of  the 
U.  S.  Navy,  who  spent  ten  years  in  service  on  the  African  coast. 


100  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

the  greater  or  less  humanity  of  his  master,  and 
perhaps  a  law  of  the  State,  prescribing  some 
punishment  for  killing  him,  provided  the  murder 
is  confessedly  unprovoked,  and  can  be  proved 
by  the  testimony  of  white  witnesses. 

Look  at  these  three  items,  that  alone  tend  to 
mitigate  the  intensity  of  Africa's  barbarous  des 
potism. 

The  high  pecuniary  value  at  which  the  slave 
is  held  by  his  master  acts  to  guard  that  slave 
from  the  extreme  of  inhuman  punishment  and 
death.  Does  this  avail  anything  to  obviate  the 
extreme  degradation  of  his  servile  condition, 
or  the  despotic  supremacy  of  his  master  over 
him  ?  If  it  does,  then  let  us  make  due  allow 
ance.  But  though  the  degradation  of  the  slave 
whose  master  values  him  at  a  high  price  appears 
not  in  every  sense  to  be  as  low  as  that  of  one 
whose  life  would  be  sacrificed  for  a  trifle,  yet 
the  negro,  in  his  more  valuable  estate,  is  proba 
bly  the  more  intelligent,  feels  this  servitude 
more,  and.  though  his  elevation  changes  the 
field  of  its  operation,  it  does  not,  probably,  mit 
igate  the  tyrannous  intent  and  purpose  of  his 
master  in  holding  him  in  bondage.  Indeed,  the 
intention  of  the  master,  in  holding  the  high- 
priced,  intelligent  negro  in  a  bondage  which 
he  strongly  resists,  is  probably  more  tyran- 


ABSOLUTENESS   OF  SLAVE  DESPOTISM.  101 

nical  than  that  which  holds  the  low-priced 
slave,  who  scarcely  has  the  intelligence  or  the 
manhood  to  desire  to  be  free.  And  what  we 
are  looking  for,  in  this  investigation,  is  not  the 
degradation  or  suffering  of  the  slave,  or  any 
thing  else,  other  than  the  despotic  principle,  and 
purpose,  and  action,  of  the  master ;  and  this,  too, 
only  as  the  exercise  of  this  despotic  principle,  or 
purpose,  on  the  part  of  the  master,  tends  to 
confirm  itself,  and  to  make  him  radically  a 
despot. 

The  legal  restriction  in  the  Slave  States, 
against  the  master  taking  the  life  of  his  slave, 
is  just  enough  to  constitute  a  legislative  ac 
knowledgment  that  the  negroes  are  human  be 
ings,  without  practical  force  enough  to  afford 
them  any  substantial  protection,  even  of  their 
lives.  The  legal  requirement  in  respect  to  tes 
timony  is  so  easily  evaded,  and  the  assertion  of 
resistance,  or  assault,  on  the  part  of  the  negro, 
is  so  easily  maintained  by  the  master,  that  con 
viction  for  the  murder  of  a  slave,  if  the  murder 
had  been  conducted  with  any  prudent  safeguard 
against  notoriety,  would  be  impossible.  But  the 
operation  of  pecuniary  interest  which  the  mas 
ter  has  in  his  slave  constitutes  quite  an  ample 
protection  in  this  regard. 


XYIII. 

THE  ABOVE  ANALYSIS  CONCLUDED  —  CHECKS  ON  SEVERE  PEN 
ALTIES —  BENEVOLENCE  OF  THE  MASTER — THESE  CHECKS 
LIMITED  AND  REVERSED  BY  STATE  NECESSITIES  —  RESULTS. 

THE  enlightened  benevolence  of  the  Ameri 
can  master  —  although  this  is  a  very  uncertain 
quantity,  yet,  in  the  aggregate,  in  comparison 
with  the  murderous  cruelty  of  the  African  mas 
ter,  it  is  exceedingly  great  and  precious — consti 
tutes  the  chief  cause  of  mitigating  the  exercise 
of  that  tyrannical  authority  which  tha  American 
slave-owner  possesses;  thereby  mitigating  the 
reactive  effect  which  the  exercise  of  that  author 
ity  would  have,  to  annihilate  the  remnant  of  his 
own  free  principles.  The  enjoyment  of  ease 
and  affluence  tends  to  make  one  generous 
toward  others.  The  Africanization  which  the 
master's  mind  has  undergone,  through  the  influ 
ence  of  negro  educating  and  negro  society,  has 
not  entirely  reversed  this  tendency. 

If  the  principles  of  free  government  still  re 
tain  any  sway  in  the  master's  mind,  they  will 

join  their  iniluence  to  that  of  a  native  or  acquired 

102 


MITIGATIONS    OF    SLAVE  DESPOTISM  —  THEIR  LIMIT.     103 

benevolence,  inducing  that  master  to  leave  un 
used  much  of  the  despotic  power  over  his  slave, 
with  which  the  civil  code  of  his  State  invests 
him.  Hence  arose  that  softening-down  of  the 
claims  and  pretensions  of  mastership  which  had 
well-nigh  yielded  up  the  whole  system  of  slavery, 
at  about  the  period  of  the  adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution.  Hence,  also,  that  lack  of 
sympathy  with  the  slave  system,  which  caused  it 
to  be  absolutely  abhorred  by  thousands  who 
continued  to  practice  it  from  the  force  of  circum 
stances,  which  they  lacked  the  skill  and  energy 
to  control. 

But  all  of  these  mitigating  influences  were 
doomed  to  meet  their  limit,  and  their  final  defeat 
and  reversal,  in  the  State  necessity,  as  it  may  be 
called,  —  the  necessity  of  treating  the  negroes 
in  such  a  wray  as  would  secure  the  public  welfare, 
beyond  a  peradventure,  against  insurrectionary 
disturbance.  What  this  mode  of  treatment  is, 
it  is  not  left  wholly  to  individual  judgment  to 
decide.  Education,  universal  usage,  and  an 
exacting  public  sentiment,  determine  that  it 
shall  be  such  usage  as  will  effectually  keep  down 
all  manifest  aspirations  after  a  better  condition, 
—  that  the  art  of  reading  and  writing,  and  all 
means  of  increased  intelligence  shall  be,  as  far 
as  possible,  inhibited, — that  the  personal  property 


104  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

held  by  slaves  shall  be  kept  down  as  near  as 
possible  to  zero  ;  especially  the  possession  of  any 
thing  that  might  be  used  as  an  offensive  or  de 
fensive  weapon  shall  not  be  permitted;  that 
the  orders  of  the  master,  any  member  of  his 
white  family,  or  his  overseer,  shall  be  performed, 
right  or  wrong,  under  penalty  of  the  severest 
chastisement.  After  all  this  has  been  exacted 
and  complied  with,  I  know  not  that  it  is  adding 
anything,  to  say  that  the  most  obsequious  defer 
ence  is  exacted  of,  and  paid  by,  every  negro,  to 
every  white  person  of  the  master-class  when  in 
his  presence. 

The  justice  of  the  master's  claim  to  every 
thing  the  negro  is,  or  has,  or  can  produce,  is 
never  permitted  for  a  moment  to  be  questioned. 
The  negro  has  no  rights,  is  to  advance  none, 
to  defend  none.  Food  and  clothing  of  some 
sort,  and  attendance  when  sick,  are  secured  to 
him  by  the  master's  property  interest  in  his 
health  and  efficiency.  Other  than  these,  it  is 
deemed  to  be  extremely  imprudent  to  allow  a 
negro  to  claim  as  his  any  right  or  privilege 
whatever.  To  do  so  would  open  the  way  for 
negroes  to  make  larger  and  larger  claims,  and 
would  certainly  lead  to  some  struggle  on  their 
part  to  maintain  and  enforce  such  claims.  The 
only  way  to  keep  them  quiet  is  not  to  allow 


MASTERS  MUST   PUNISH  SLAVES.  105 

them  to  claim  as  their  right  anything  whatever, 
or  to  possess  anything  but  what  their  master 
pleases  graciously  to  allow.  Here  is  the  limit 
that  is  set  to  the  exercise  of  benevolence  or  free 
principles  on  the  part  of  the  master  among  his 
negroes.  The  exigencies  of  the  public  safety 
forbid  these  bounds  to  be  enlarged,  and  enforce 
this  prohibition  by  the  peril  of  all  the  untold 
loss  and  horrors  of  servile  insurrection. 

Look  for  a  moment  at  the  means  by  which 
the  slave-owner,  be  he  benevolent  or  malevolent, 
be  he  monarchist  or  republican,  must  enforce 
upon  his  negro  this  abnegation  of  all  claims  to 
any  personal  right,  —  this  implicit,  unquestioning 
obedience  to  his  owner's  will.  Suppose  a  negro 
slave  to  question  or  resist  his  master's  right  to 
dispose  of  him  as  he  pleases.  It  matters  not 
when,  or  where,  or  in  what  manner,  this  lack  of 
submissiveness  is  manifested.  There  is  one  law  for 
that  refractory  slave,  and,  like  the  laws  of  the 
Medes  and  Persians,  it  changes  not.  Physical 
suffering  must  be  meted  out  till  that  rebellious 
will  is  broken.  The  punishment  may  be  admin 
istered  by  the  owner  in  person,  or  by  his  deputy. 
The  master  may  or  may  not  superintend  and 
prescribe  the  limit.  The  punishment  must 
emanate  from  the  master's  right,  and  is  to  vindi- 


106  NATURAL   HISTORY  OP  SECESSION. 

cate  and  sustain  his  authority,  and  it  is  not 
optional  with  that  master  whether  to  punish  or 
not.  The  first  condition  of  owning  a  slave, 
according  to  the  African  system  Americanized, 
the  system  universally  practised  in  the  Southern 
States,  is  to  enforce  submission  by  corporal 
punishment  to  any  needed  extent;  and  every 
negro  and  every  intelligent  white  person  in  the 
South  knows  this  to  be  so.  So  that  to  own  a 
slave  and  .not  whip  him,  is  as  impossible  as  it  is 
to  live  in  the  body  without  breathing,  except  so 
far  as  the  slave  anticipates  the  whipping,  and 
prevents  it  by  sincere,  unvarying,  submissive 
obedience.  Other  than  this,  there  is  no  alterna 
tive,  except  to  sell  the  slave,  —  a  punishment 
which  he  usually  dreads  next  to  death. 

This  whipping  is  not  often  done  in  public.  It 
is  not  usually  done  in  the  presence  of  the  white 
family,  or  where  they  will  even  hear  the  negro's 
cries.  The  generally  prevailing  opinion  among 
masters  is,  that  the  less  of  it  is  done,  the  better ; 
and  the  more  silently,  the  better.  That  every 
expedient  of  successful  government  should  be 
resorted  to  in  order  to  avoid  it,  both  on  account 
of  its  unpleasantness,  its  brutifying  effect  on 
the  master,  or  those  who  act  under  him,  and  the 
danger  of  damage  to  the  slave.  But,  however 


MASTERS  MCJST  PUNISH  SLAVES.  107 

obscurely  concealed,  however  remotely  post 
poned,  there  it  is,  known,  calculated  on,  and 
inevitable ;  the  slave  that  refuses  to  submit 
implicitly  to  his  master  must  be  whipped  till  he 
yields. 


LIBKARY 

t:\IV  IlL'SITY 


XIX. 

RESULTS  OF   ABOVE   ANALYSIS   RECAPITULATED  AXD   APPLIED. 

WE  have,  then,  from  an  analysis  of  slavery, 
this  result :  The  slave  is  deprived  of  all  rights, 
has  all  aspirations  after  liberty  suppressed,  is 
reduced  to,  and  retained  in,  implicit  subjection 
to  his  master's  will.  He  is  placed  in  this  position 
by  statute  laws  recognizing  the  claim  of  an 
African  captor,  or  purchaser,  to  the  lifelong  ser 
vices  of  his  slave,  and  of  that  slave's  descendants, 
and  also  recognizing  this  claim,  now  termed  a 
right,  as  it  stands  transferred  from  an  African  to 
an  American  owner.  This  law  is  enforced,  and 
the  benefits  of  this  right  are  exacted,  by  the 
ever-present  fact  or  fear  of  corporal  suffering, 
inflicted  to  an  unlimited  extent  by  the  authority, 
and  according  to  the  will,  of  the  slave-owner. 
Any  mitigation  of  these  conditions  is  accidental, 
— is  due  to  the  kindness  and  the  skill,  the  benev 
olent  and  freedom-loving  spirit  which  the  mas 
ter  may  happen  to  possess ;  and  is  limited  and 
restrained  by  the  imminent  danger  that  public 
disturbance  and  incalculable  calamity  will  result 

108 


SLAVE-HOLDING  MAKES   DESPOTS.  109 

from  any  considerable  relaxation,  or  failure  to 
enforce  his  claim,  on  the  part  of  the  master. 

Now,  and  here,  the  very  important  question 
arises,  How  long  can  a  man  occupy,  exercise,  and 
enforce  the  claims  of  a  master  on  his  slaves, 
without  becoming  himself  imbued  with  the 
spirit  and  principles  of  a  despot,  and  without 
having  his  attachment  to  the  principles  of  free 
government  sadly  undermined  ? 

Certainly,  if  that  man  has  in  his  composition 
the  average  natural  amount  of  logic,  he  must 
exercise  the  functions  of  master  with  extreme 
reluctance,  and  must  find  his  most  cherished  and 
indulged  associates  remote  from  the  servility  of 
slaves,  or,  before  he  is  aware  of  it,  the  principles 
of  free  government,  as  held  by  him,  will  have 
become  a  mere  inoperative,  dreamlike  theory, 
however  strongly  he  may  suppose  himself  to  be 
attached  to  them ;  and  the  whole  tendency  and 
habit  of  his  mind  and  character  will  have  been 
moulded  to  every  lineament  of  a  despot. 

While  the  slave  system  was  in  its  incipiency, 
while  the  master  held  the  unenlightened  African 
as  much  from  motives  of  benevolence  as  of  gain, 
and  cared  little  whether  the  worthless  wretches 
were  retained  or  free,  slave-holding  could  not 
have  had  much  power  to  mould  the  principles 
and  political  habits  of  the  master.  But,  as  the 


10 


110  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

established  institutions  of  the  country  began  to 
exert  a  pressure  on  that  master  in  favor  of  the 
principles  of  free  government,  and  to  demand 
from  him  a  sincere  and  active  support;  as  the 
negro  became  more  and  more  enlightened  and 
fit  for  freedom,  and  more  and  more  desirous  of 
obtaining  it,  thus  exerting  a  constantly  increas 
ing  pressure  against  the  force  that  kept  him 
down  in  servitude ;  and  as,  at  the  same  time,  the 
high  and  advancing  price  of  slave-labor  induced 
the  slave-holder,  from  motives  of  pecuniary  gain, 
to  grasp  with  new  vigor,  and  exercise  with  new 
stringency,  the  power  by  which  he  held  his  slave 
in  bondage,  —  then  it  was  that  the  power  of  the 
practice  of  slave-holding  became  irresistible  to 
mould  the  governmental  principles  of  the  slave 
holder;  then  it  was  that  the  whole  Southern 
mind  became  so  tempered  with,  and  infected  by, 
the  intoxicating  sweets  of  despotic  authority, 
that  nothing  was  wanting  but  the  agitating  pres 
ence  of  a  bold  and  desperate  leader,  to  precipitate 
the  infected  mass  into  the  solid  form  of  a  con 
crete  despotism.*  And  the  present  war  has 

*  "  I  say  to  every  man  present,  that  there  exists  not  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  to-day  a  deeper  nor  a  darker  despotism  than  now  reigns  over  the 
Southern  people." — Speech  of  Gen.  Corcoran  on  Boston  Common,  Aug.  29th, 
1862. 

"  I  had  no  idea  that  the  whole  people  of  a  county  could  be  so  frightened 
as  to  permit  a  few  men  like  Walter  Mitchell  and  Wm.  B.  Stone  and  their 
confederates  to  create  a  reign  of  terror  in  their  midst.  But  such  was  the 


HATRED   TO   FREEDOM  FORCED   ON  THE  FIGHT.     Ill 

followed  as  naturally  and  as  necessarily  as  dark 
ness  follows  the  setting  of  the  natural  sun.  And 
the  present  war  must  last,  with  all  its  world- 
rocking  commotions  and  its  local  devastation,  till 
one  or  the  other  of  the  conflicting  principles, 
either  despotism  or  democracy,  with  its  final  ad 
herents,  no  longer  survives  writh  power  to  carry 
on  the  conflict.  When  the  Southern  leaders  tell 
us  (and  no  Southern  man,  except  their  leaders, 
ever  tells  us  anything,  except  what  has  been  put 
into  his  mouth)  that  they  have  been  forced  into 
this  fight,  they  tell  the  truth.  And  the  trueness 
of  the  statement  arises  on  this  wise :  From  the 
moulding  force  of  slavery,  or,  to  speak  with  more 
defmiteness,  from  the  moulding  force  of  their 
perilous  mastership,  acting  in  their  education, 
their  characters  have  become  stamped  with  every 
lineament  of  despotism,  and  their  interests,  so 
far  as  they  are  able  to  discern  where  they  lie, 
are  identified  with  the  perpetuity  of  that  hoary 
crime.  Hence  the  presence  of  an  antagonist  so 
inimical  as  a  free,  self-governing  people,  vital 
with  the  spirit  of  their  civil  institutions,  and 

fact  :  the  people  were  so  frightened,  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  to 
have  raised  fifty  men  in  the  whole  county  to  fight  the  few  rebel  soldiers  in 
Port  Tobacco."—  Private  Letter  from  Charles  Co.,  Md.,  Aug.  llth,  1862. 

"  The  Confederates  once  whipped  in  Virginia,  and  you  will  hear  one  pro 
longed  and  thundering  shout  for  the  downfall  of  this  damnable  government 
from  New  Orleans  to  Fortress  Monroe."—  Private  Letter  from  Charleston, 
8.  C.,  July  20*A,  1862. 


112  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

shining  with  success,  necessitates  this  war,  and 
will  continue  so  to  do  till  one  or  the  other  of  the 
hostile  parties  is  converted  or  consumed. 

This  necessity  for  a  state  of  war  has  arisen, 
not  from  any  change  that  has  taken  place  in  the 
North ;  not  from  anything  the  Northern  people 
have  done  ;  but  from  the  Southern  leaders,  who 
act  for  the  Southern  people,  having  become  re 
converted  back  from  democracy  to  despotism, 
and  seduced  to  repudiate  the  principles  and  to 
subvert  the  institutions  of  their  fathers  by  the 
increasing  profitableness  of  holding  slaves. 


XX. 

PECULIAR  QUALITIES  CONFERRED  ON  THE  MASTER  OF  SLAVES 
BY  HIS  POSITION  —  PRACTICAL  DISPLAY  OF  THESE  QUAL 
ITIES. 

SUCH  being  the  educational  power  of  master 
ship  to  transform  the  Democrat  into  a  Despot, 
it  follows  that  before  the  free  institutions  of  our 
government  can  prevail  again  over  its  former 
territorial  limits,  not  only  must  that  source  of 
the  pernicious  education  become  extinct,  but 
another  generation  of  Southerners  must  be  edu 
cated  under  different  auspices.  How  effectually 
the  few  years  of  the  present  war  may  avail  to 
displace  the  generation  of  its  authors  from  mor 
tal  life,  from  political  and  social  power,  and  to 
correct  the  vicious  educating  of  those  who  are 
to  succeed  them  in  the  leading  places  of  South 
ern  politics  and  society,  is  a  question  that  time 
alone  can  answer.  It  is  not,  as  the  London 
"Times"  affirms,  that  "  the  United  States  must  do 
as  Britain  did  in  1783,  or  govern  the  South  as 
Russia  governs  Poland."  The  "Times,"  that  vile, 
subsidized  tool  of  despots,  knows,  if  it  would 
admit,  that  the  United  States  occupy  the  same 

10*  118 


114  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

position  now  which  they  occupied  in  1783,  as 
the  representatives  and  champions  of  free  gov 
ernment  ;  and  now,  as  then,  the  antagonistic 
arms  of  despotism  must  yield  before  them,  if 
the  " Times"  and  its  august  compeers  cannot 
succeed  in  lying  them  into  such  a  state  of  fear 
and  uncertainty  as  to  give  up  the  contest. 

But  we  have  not  done  with  the  practical  de 
tail  of  slave-holding,  as  it  acts  to  mould  the  char 
acter  and  habits  of  the  master. 

To  say  that  it  confers  a  habit  of  command,  is 
to  describe  but  a  part  of  that  ingrained  sense  of 
superiority,  that  perfect  contour  of  lordliness, 
which  results  from  lifelong  surveillance  over  a 
subject  race,  and  which  has  in  it  much  that  com 
mands  respect  and  exerts  influence  among  men, 
despite  the  absence  of  merit,  of  learning,  and  of 
mental  grasp,  and  the  presence  of  much  that  is 
mean,  cruel,  treacherous,  dishonest,  and  unjust. 
It  acts  instinctively  and  powerfully  to  place  its 
possessor  above  your  criticism,  above  your  in 
vestigation,  and  to  command  your  reverend  ac 
quiescence  without  consulting  your  judgment  or 
your  will.  It  can  never  be  attained  by  study  or 
assumed  by  direct  effort.  It  can  never  be  gen 
erated  or  preserved  in  a  democratic  state  of 
society.  It  must  be  conferred  from  infancy, 


MASTERING  TALENT   OF  SLAVE-HOLDERS.          115 

doubtless  becomes  more  or  less  hereditary,  and 
acts  with  the  spontaneous,  instinctive  ease,  not 
of  a  second  nature,  but  of  a  first.  It  results 
from  lifelong  habits  of  the  successful  exercise  of 
dictatorial  control  over  men.  It  enables  its  pos 
sessor  to  take  the  first  move,  the  vantage  ground, 
the  choice  of  position,  and  contributes  greatly 
toward  his  success  in  all  transactions  with  those 
who  have  it  not.  This  kind  of  superiority,  when 
possessed  by  only  an  individual  or  family,  has 
produced  immense  effects  in  the  Old  World ;  but 
when  it  comes  to  be  the  common  heritage  of  an 
indefinitely  extended  class,  as  in  this  country, 
its  full  influence  remains  to  be  discovered.  It 
has  inclined  and  enabled  Southern  leaders  so  to 
husband  the  few  political  advantages  they  pos 
sessed,  and  so  to  turn  their  very  weakness  to 
advantage,  that  they  have  not  only  put  a  perpet 
ual  quietus  upon  all  movements  and  tendencies 
contrary  to  their  own  among  their  own  seven 
and  three-fourths  millions  of  poor  white  popula 
tion,  but  to  exercise  a  controlling  influence  in 
our  national  affairs,  over  Northern  majorities  and 
a  predominance  of  learning,  talent,  truth,  justice, 
and  consistency.  So  that  said  Southern  leaders 
have  had  their  way  in  everything  desired  but  in 
preventing  the  material  progress  and  multiplying 
numbers  of  the  Free  States;  and  when  they 


116  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

found  that,  by  virtue  of  dead  weight,  the  North 
was  becoming  too  vast  for  them  to  handle,  they, 
by  virtue  of  the  quality  we  are  considering,  se 
lected  their  own  time  and  method  and  circum 
stances  for  terminating  their  connection  with  it. 
But,  thanks  to  an  overruling  Providence,  they 
have  let  the  matter  of  separation  alone  too  long. 
Although  overreached,  befooled,  and  betrayed, 
and  although  we  commenced  this  contest  with 
a  national  treasury  robbed  and  bankrupted,  ar 
senals  rifled  of  their  contents,  an  army  and  navy 
demoralized  and  depressed,  and  their  remnants 
scattered  to  the  ends  of  the  earth ;  though  the 
national  administration,  for  the  first  time  com 
posed  practically  of  Northern  men,  without  an 
element  of  the  hitherto  all-controlling  Southern 
leadership  to  give  it  strength,  cannot  conceal  its 
weakness;  and  although,  from  the  commence 
ment  of  the  war  to  the  time  of  this  writing,  Sep 
tember  12,  1862,  our  commanders  in  the  field 
appear  to  have  been,  on  the  whole,  extensively 
outgeneralled  and  baffled  by  that  same  disdain 
ful  assuming  of  the  initiative  on  the  part  of  their 
antagonists,  which  has  baffled  our  congressmen 
for  half  a  century,  —  yet  we  expect,  and  not 
without  good  reason,  that  by  mere  dead  weight, 
superiority  of  numbers  and  resources,  we  shall 
triumph  in  the  end. 


SOUTHERN  DICTATION.  117 

• 

It  was  this  quality  of  Southern  leadership,  the 
result  of  being  born  and  educated  masters,  which 
petulant  Northern  journalists,  notwithstanding 
the  wonderful  power  which  it  exerts,  and  the 
success  of  its  applications,  persist  in  denominat 
ing  "  superciliousness,"  and  "  insufferable  inso 
lence,"  that  inclined  and  enabled  the  South 
Carolina  legislature  with  impunity  to  mob  the 
agent  (Judge  Hoar)  of  Massachusetts  sent  to 
prosecute  a  case  in  the  United  States  court  at 
their  capital,  —  that'inclined  and  enabled  Preston 
S.  Brooks  with  impunity  to  cudgel  Senator 
Sumner  in  his  senatorial  chair  till  a  trifle  more 
of  the  same  treatment  would  have  terminated 
his  life,  —  that  enabled  Andrew  Jackson  to  de 
molish  the  United  States  Bank,  and  virtually  to 
terminate  the  application  of  Federal  appropria 
tions  to  purposes  of  internal  improvement ;  and, 
under  pretence  of  "  conscientious  scruples  "  and 
"  constitutional  objections,"  with  others  like  him, 
his  compeers  and  successors,  to  do  whatever  they 
deemed  best  adapted  to  cripple  the  strength  and 
impede  the  prosperity  of  the  Northern  States,  — 
to  establish  a  compromise  line,  bounding  slave 
territory  on  the  North,  when  they  thought  such 
action  for  their  advantage,  and  abolish  it  when 
they  saw  lit, —  to  resort  to  the  doctrine  of  pop 
ular  sovereignty  to  abolish  the  Missouri  Com- 


118  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

promise,  thereby  bringing  Kansas  into  dispute, 
between  Free  State  and  Pro-slavery  parties,  and 
to  resort  to  a  military  despotism  to  force  slavery 
into  it  as  soon  as  it  had  become  disputable,  — 
so  perpetually  to  dictate  the  policy  of  the  gen 
eral  government  as  to  inhibit  all  acknowledg 
ment  of  nationality  at  home  or  abroad,  in  Li 
beria,  Hayti,  or  elsewhere,  to  any  people  of  the 
races  from  whom  their  slaves  are  taken,  —  so  to 
dictate  at  the  North  the  sentiments  with  which 
negroes  shall  be  regarded,  as  to  exclude  them 
from  the  common  rights  of  citizens  and  from 
military  service,  at  the  imminent  risk  of 
losing  all  we  have  at  stake  in  the  present  war, 
in  consequence  of  that  exclusion. 


XXI. 

OTHER  TRAITS  OF  CHARACTER  CONFERRED  BY  HIS  POSITION 
ON  THE  SLAVE-MASTER,  FITTING  HIM  FOR  WAR;  AND 
DISPLAYED  BY  HIS  CLASS  IN  THE  PRESENT  CONTEST. 

ASIDE  from  the  quality  mentioned  in  the  last 
chapter  as  resulting  from  lifelong  presiding  over 
a  servile  race,  there  are  other  qualities,  or  traits 
of  character,  acquired  thereby,  and  not  often 
derived  from  any  other  source.  Among  these 
is  a  certain  wakeful,  watchful,  reconnoitring 
alertness,  an  instinctive,  habitual  quickness  to 
apprehend  danger,  and  effectually  to  provide 
against  it,  the  result  of  being  born  and  bred  in  a 
state  of  perpetual  war,  where  tremendous  penal 
ties  for  remissness  were  continually  pending. 

What !  it  will  be  asked  by  some,  is  the  state  of 
the  slave-holder  a  state  of  perpetual  war  ?  The 
answer  to  this  inquiry  is,  Yes.  And  the  only 
qualification  needed  to  explain  the  answer  is, 
that  the  "  master  race  "  is,  in  general,  in  a  state 
of  complete  triumphant  success ;  so  that  very 
little  fighting  has  to  be  done.  The  only  reason 
that  there  is  not  frequent  and  active  fighting  is, 
that  the  negroes  are  effectually  deprived  of 

119 


120  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

means  and  opportunities  to  fight  with  the  re 
motest  probability  of  success.  That  there  is  just 
and  sufficient  cause  for  constant  war,  the  negro 
and  his  master  alike  well  know.  It  is  the  disci 
pline  and  practice  of  keeping  his  negroes  thus 
perpetually  deprived  of  the  means  and  oppor 
tunities  of  waging  active  war,  that  gives  the 
slave-holder  the  habit,  and  at  length  the  power, 
of  examining,  measuring,  estimating,  and  com 
prehending  every  man  that  presents  himself  for 
acquaintance,  or  for  transactions  with  him  :  that 
is,  he  measures,  estimates,  and  comprehends  him 
so  far  as  to  arrive  at  an  approximately  certain 
conclusion  as  to  what  course  of  action  he  is  likely 
to  pursue,  what  benefits  or  mischiefs  are  likely 
to  accrue  to  himself  (the  slave-holder)  and  to 
his  cause  therefrom,  and  how,  and  how  far,  it 
becomes  incumbent  on  him  to  make  provision 
against  such  mischiefs. 

The  slave-holder  also  understands  and  acts  on 
the  importance  of  tampering  with  his  enemy,  to 
bribe  and  disarm  his  hostile  feeling,  and  thereby 
lessen  the  danger  and  the  frequency  of  resistful 
encounters.  Every  time  he  corrects  a  servant 
for  misbehavior,  he  fights  an  engagement  in 
the  general  perpetual  battle,  by  complete  suc 
cess  in  which  on  the  part  of  the  master  the 
negro  race  are  kept  against  their  wills  in  im- 


SOUTHERN  SELF-PRESERVATION.  121 

plicit  and  profitable  servitude.  Another  lesson, 
eminently  fitting  one  for  active  war,  which  the 
master  of  slaves  is  compelled  to  learn,  is  to  take 
care  of  himself.  The  war  he  is  perpetually  en 
gaged  in  carrying  on  is  not  a  war  with  equals ; 
it  is  war  with  a  servile  race  ;  and  in  such  a  war 
it  would  be  disgracefully  imprudent  to  allow 
himself  to  be  injured.  Hence  the  purpose  to 
inflict  a  punishment,  or  to  transfer  by  sale,  or 
anything  that  is  likely  to  rouse  the  negro  to 
resistance,  is  instinctively  kept  an  inscrutable 
secret;  the  negro  is  eyed  and  calculated  for 
till  it  is  seen  that  he  is  about  to  come  into  a  po 
sition  where  he  can  be  captured,  handcuffed,  and 
handled  at  pleasure,  and  without  peril  to  the 
master. 

Hence  the  sly,  secret,  stealthy  operations  of 
the  Southern  forces  in  the  existing  war,  and 
their  persistent  and  perpetual  refusal  to  fight, 
except  where  overwhelming  numbers,  or  advan 
tageous  position,  or  some  other  advantage  on 
their  side  appears  to  them  to  place  their  success 
beyond  a  question ;  also  their  unparalleled  and 
inimitable  indifference  to  what  all  other  warriors 
have  esteemed  to  be  the  disgrace  of  fleeing  be 
fore  the  face  of  an  equal  foe.  Hence,  too,  their 
torpedoes  by  land  and  sea,  their  bushwhacking, 
their  assassination  of  pickets,  picking  off  officers 
11 


122  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

in  engagements,  and  the  like,  —  proceedings 
which  have  been  criticised  and  complained  of 
by  Northern  men  as  "  outrageous/'  "  mean/'  and 
"  treacherous/'  but  which  result  necessarily  from 
the  lifelong  education  every  Southern  master 
has  received.  Hence,  also,  the  noteworthy  suc 
cess  of  the  South  in  taking  prisoners.  Though 
whipped  in  three  or  four  battles,  where  they  are 
victors  in  one,  they  take  more  than  prisoners 
enough  to  exchange  for  all  they  lose. 

Efficiency  of  action  is  another  trait  that  has 
become  confirmed,  and,  to  a  great  extent,  per 
fected,  in  the  character  of  the  slave-holders  as  a 
class.  It  arises  from  the  tremendous  penalties 
of  failure  in  dealing  with  their  negroes,  which 
penalties  are  continually  hanging  over  them,  and 
from  habits  of  complete  success  which  have  for 
ages  attended  their  labors  for  the  subjugation  of 
the  Africans.  Extremely  few  experiments  are 
ever  tried  by  this  class  of  men.  Hence  their 
notorious  destitution  of  any  spirit  of  invention, 
and  the  exceeding  slowness  with  which  they 
admit  the  most  important  and  most  demon 
strated  improvements  of  the  age. 

This  habit  of  decisive  action,  as  displayed  by 
them  in  inaugurating  and  carrying  on  the  pres 
ent  war,  has  been  remarked  and  wondered  at, 
ridiculed  and  doubted,  by  observers  in  and  out 


SOUTHERN  DECISIVENESS.  123 

of  authority  in  the  North,  and  in  Europe.  It 
was  thought  by  some  to  augur  something  in 
favor  of  the  South  in  reference  to  the  final  re 
sult,  and  was  regarded  for  a  time  by  all  as  char 
acteristic  of  this  particular  contest.  But  it  is  a 
characteristic  habit  of  Southern  leaders,  a  class 
of  men  who,  from  educational  causes  above-men 
tioned,  never  accept  of  partial  success  unless  it 
be  temporarily,  and  as  a  means  of  achieving 
complete  and  final  triumph  in  the  end. 

Language  is  feeble  to  portray  that  absolute 
determinedness  not  only  to, succeed  or  perish, 
but  not  to  be  defeated  when  one  has  perished, 
which  becomes  habitual  to  the  leading  Southern 
mind  as  a  necessary  result  of  a  lifelong  contem 
plation  of  the  imminent  and  enormous  perils  of 
failure  in  dealing  with  a  body  of  three  or  four 
millions  of  slaves,  valuable  and  intelligent,  and 
daily  increasing  in  value  and  intelligence,  and  in 
disposition  and  in  power  to  be  free.  The  pres 
ent  onslaught  on  the  national  existence,  vast  as 
is  the  scale  of  its  operations,  presents  but  a  fee 
ble  expose  of  the  infernal  force  that  has  been 
gendered  and  will  be  matured  by  a  few  gener 
ations  more  of  a  limited  class  of  slave-holders 
being  permitted  to  bear  the  responsibilities  and 
ply  the  functions  of  their  vocation  in  the  bosom 
of  this  otherwise  democratic  republic.  If  the 


124  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

Northern  people  or  the  national  administration 
choose  to  carry  on  war  with  these  men  as  an 
experiment,  to  see  whether  their  character  and 
purpose  will  not  change  under  the  operation, 
they  can  do  so  ;  but  it  will  be  an  experiment  of 
transcendent  costliness,  and  tire  issue  of  that  war 
will  be  dictated  by  this  unbending  trait  of 
Southern  character.  With  an  utterly  inexhaust 
ible  fund  of  patient  mildness  on  the  side  of  the 
government,  —  a  mildness  that  refuses  to  exter 
minate  anything,  even  for  the  salvation  of  its 
own  confiding,  imperilled,  impoverished,  tor 
mented  and  tortured  dependents,  —  and  on  the 
other  side  a  relentless  decisiveness  as  utterly  un 
changing  ;  exhaustless  resources  on  the  part  of 
the  former  combatant  can  only  prolong  the  war, 
and  postpone  a  catastrophe  which  those  resources 
cannot  finally  avert. 


XXII. 

THE  FALLACY  OF  SUPPOSING  THAT  DISTINCTIONS  OF  COLOR  CAN 
CONSTITUTE  ANY  PERMANENT  LIMIT  TO  THE  DESPOTIC  EX 
ERCISE  OF  AUTHORITY  OR  GREED  FOR  POWER  ON  THE  PART 
OF  SLAVE-MASTERS. 

ONE  important  point  has  been  implied  in  the 
previous  pages,  which  has  not  been  explained. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  despotic  character  ac 
quired  by  the  master  in  dealing  with  his  slaves, 
as  if  the  same  would  still  attach  to  him  in  his 
dealings  with  white  people,  —  we  have  spoken 
of  the  peculiarities  of  the  particular  modes  of 
warfare  by  which  he  maintains  his  victorious  su 
premacy  over  the  negro  race,  as  if  these  same  pe 
culiarities  would  still  characterize  him  in  his  war 
against  the  free  North  in  pursuit  of  the  liberty 
of  holding  other  men  in  bondage. 

Now  the  Southerners  and  their  Northern 
friends  will  strenuously  protest  against  this  mode 
of  reasoning.  They  will  maintain  most  ear 
nestly  that  they  never  intended  to  treat  gentle 
men,  or  white  people,  in  anything  like  the  way 
in  which  they  are  obliged  to  treat  the  blacks. 
A  few  months  ago,  this  kind  of  talk  sounded 

11*  125 


126  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

well,  and  Drained  believing  listeners ;  and  the 
danger  is,  that  a  lew  months  hence,  being  sauced 
with  a  good  deal  of  Southern  blandishment,  arid 
seasoned  with  a  spice  of  concealed  Northern  trea 
son,  it  will  again  be  urged  on  the  Northern  gov 
ernment  and  people  with  some  success,  namely, 
that  men  have  one  character  in  their  dealings 
with  black  men,  and  another  in  their  dealings 
with  white  men,  —  that  they  may  be  the  rank 
est  despots  in  their  dealings  with  negroes,  and 
the  most  sincere  of  democrats  in  all  their  rela 
tions  to  the  whites.  We  shall,  doubtless,  be  told 
presently  that  it  was  altogether  an  oversight,  re 
pented  of  and  apologized  for,  that  during  the 
heat  of  the  contest  their  ideas  became  somewhat 
mixed,  and  in  language,  in  deeds,  and  in  bitter 
violence  of  feeling,  "  they  unfortunately  identi 
fied  us  with  the  despised  negroes.  And  this  too, 
only  so  far  as  they  supposed  themselves  to  have 
just  cause  to  believe  that  we  placed  ourselves  on 
a  level  with  the  negroes,  and  were  really  em 
ployed  in  aiding  them  to  secure  their  liberty  by 
a  servile  war." 

Two  considerations  stand  in  the  way  of  all 
this.  First,  we  are  not  dealing  with  the  admitted 
intentions  of  slave-holders,  or  of  any  other  men. 
We  are  contemplating  their  characters,  the  laws 
that  govern  their  actions,  that  have  governed 


WHITE  SKINS   NO   BAR  TO   DESPOTISM.  127 

them  heretofore,  and  will  govern  them  hereafter, 
whether  the  performers  of  those  actions  intelli 
gently  design  it  or  not ;  and  never  more  legiti 
mately  than  during  the  din  of  conflict,  when 
customary  disguises  and  artificial  restraints  are 
necessarily  forgotten,  and  the  roused  individual 
displays  his  true  self  with  more  sincere  honesty 
than  it  would  have  been  possible  for  him  to  prac 
tise,  had  he  not  been  thrown  entirely  off  his 
guard  by  the  fire  and  strifes  of  war.  These  sin 
cere  traits  of  character,  these  laws  that  have 
governed  and  still  must  govern  their  undisguised 
conduct,  were  displayed  by  guerrilla  warfare, 
masked  batteries,  assassination  of  pickets,  poison 
ing  springs,  and  selling  poisoned  provisions  to 
our  soldiers,  sequestration  of  the  property  of  Un 
ion  Southerners,  persecution,  imprisonment,  and 
hanging,  of  such  Unionists,  sinking  infernal  ma 
chines  to  blow  up  our  ships  on  the  water,  and 
planting  torpedoes  to  mutilate  and  murder  un 
suspecting  men  on  land,  plundering  and  disrob 
ing  our  dead  on  the  battle-field,  robbing  the 
wounded  of  their  haversacks  and  leaving  them 
to  die  by  starvation ;  disinterring  our  dead  to 
get  their  skulls  for  drinking-cups  and  their  bones 
for  relics,  treating  prisoners  with  wanton  outrage 
and  cruelty,  and  shooting  them  down  in  cold 
blood,  —  these,  and  a  volume  more  of  like  trans- 


128  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

actions  perpetrated  by  the  Rebels  in  this  War, 
verify  beyond  dispute,  that  the  distinction  made 
by  slave-holders  between  white  and  black  in  the 
putting  forth  of  their  democratic  or  despotic  prin 
ciples  and  modes  of  action,  is  a  purely  fictitious 
and  fanciful  distinction,  and  wherever  it  is  ob 
served  at  all,  it  is  so  observed  only  for  lack  of 
power  to  enforce  the  cruel  dictates  of  their  ty 
rannical  principles  and  habits,  and  the  desire  of 
their  Africanized,  barbarous  hearts. 

The  truth  is,  —  and  this  is  the  second  objec 
tion  we  bring  against  the  pretended  reasoning 
of  the  slave-holders  and  their  friends,  —  that  the 
principles  and  habits  of  despotism  are  supreme 
and  all-moulding  in  their  possessor.  He  cannot 
rid  himself  of  their  all-controlling  force.  As  well 
might  you  plant  a  tree  with  all  its  roots  above- 
ground,  and  all  its  leafy  boughs  beneath  the  sod, 
and  expect  it  to  flourish  and  bear  fruit ;  as  well 
might  you  take  a  child  of  the  ordinary  human 
stock,  in  full  health,  and  make  him  promise  and 
swear  not  to  grow  to  exceed  three  feet  three 
inches  in  stature,  and  not  to  exceed  fifty  pounds 
in  weight,  as  expect  a  man  who  has  been  born 
and  bred  to  the  exercise  of  despotic  control  over 
men,  to  lay  by  the  principles  and  practices  of 
despotism,  and  became  an  honest  democratic 
member  of  a  democratic  community.  He  may 


DESPOTS  WILL   DEAL   DESPOTICALLY.  129 

become  such  a  member  of  such  a  community  ; 
but  it  will  be  only  in  submission  to  a  force  that 
utterly  precludes  the  possibility  of  his  doing  oth 
erwise.  And  the  moment  that  compelling,  co 
ercive  force  is  relaxed,  that  moment,  as  a  per 
fectly  elastic  physical  body,  released  from  the 
force  that  had  compressed  it,  springs  again  into 
its  full  former  form  and  dimensions,  so  the  coer- 
cively  democratized  despot  will  instinctively 
spring  again  into  the  exercise  of  his  former 
despotic  principles  and  habits,  all  the  purposes 
he  may  have  formed,  all  the  promises  he  may 
have  made,  and  all  the  oaths  he  may  have 
taken,  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

Not  only  is  it  the  law  of  the  human  mind, — 
a  law  admitting  of  no  exceptions,  other  than 
such  as  are  made  by  compulsive  force,  —  that 
despots  will  deal  despotically  ;  but  it  is  also  such 
a  law  that  they  will  do  so  ultimately,  to  the  full 
extent  of  their  ability,  to  the  utmost  limits  of 
the  population  over  whom  they  are  able  to  es 
tablish  their  control.  And  the  idea  that  our 
Southern  despots,  having  three  or  four  millions 
of  blacks  under  their  unquestioned  control, 
would  bound  their  exercise  of  and  their  greed 
for  power,  by  the  line  that  limits  the  complex 
ion  of  the  African  skin,  is  one  of  the  shallow- 


130  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

est  fallacies  with  which  a  rational  man  ever  un- 
took  to  deceive  himself. 

Like  the  facility  with  which  wealth  is  accu 
mulated,  so  the  ease  of  accumulating  despotic 
power  increases  in  geometrical  ratio  to  what  is 
already  possessed. 

Had  the  Southern  tyrants  had  no  supreme 
control  over  millions  of  blacks,  they  could  never 
have  subjugated  the  seven  and  three-fourths 
millions  of  poor  white  population.  Had  they 
not  succeeded  in  establishing  an  absolute  des 
potic  control  over  these  millions  of  non-slave- 
holding  whites  in  the  Southern  States,  they  would 
not  have  been  able  to  entail  on  the  North  these 
years  of  bloody  and  exhausting  war  for  the 
enlargement  and  perpetuation  of  their  despotic 
sway. 

When  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  guaran 
teed  to  slave-holders  the  perpetual,  quiet  pos 
session  of  their  increasing  numbers  of  African 
slaves,  they  put  into  the  hands  of  that  class  of 
men  a  weapon  wherewith  they  could  presently 
put  that  Constitution,  with  all  its  beneficent 
provisions,  out  of  existence.  When  the  rise  of 
the  cotton- trade  gave  new  vitality  and  pecuni 
ary  power  to  slave-holders,  it  necessarily  im 
parted  to  them  the  disposition  and  the  power 
to  use  that  weapon. 


CONDITIONS  OF  PEACE.  131 

If  the  present  war  does  not  deprive  slave-hold 
ing  of  permanent  vitality,  so  that  it  can  never 
take  root  and  sprout  into  vigorous  growth  again, 
then  the  present  war  will  act  on  the  causes 
that  produced  it,  only  as  a  limited  amount  of 
water  acts  on  a  conflagration  which  it  suffices 
only  to  deaden,  while  it  does  not  quench. 

The  slave-holders  and  their  apologizing  friends 
tell  us  that  "  the  abolitionists  are  the  cause  of 
the  present  war."  Every  man  who  refuses  to 
bow  his  neck  in  permanent  subjection  to  the 
Southern  despots  whom  slavery  has  raised  up,  is 
the  cause  of  this  war  by  said  refusal.  If  the 
whole  Northern  population  had  so  bowed  their 
necks,  then  would  there  have  been  no  war,  and 
on  no  other  condition.  On  any  other  condition 
than  that  perpetual  and  universal  submission  on 
the  part  of  the  whole  Northern  population  to 
be  ruled  over  by  the  masters  of  the  Southern 
slaves,  the  present  war  will  rage,  and  must  inev 
itably  rage,  in  one  form  or  another,  and  at  longer 
or  shorter  intervals,  till  either  despotism  or  de 
mocracy  is  exterminated  from  within  our  coun 
try's  boundaries. 

Whether  thd  genus  Despot  can  be  preserved 
and  propagated  by  the  subject  class  of  the  South 
ern  despotism,  is  a  question  on  which  there  need 


132  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

be  no  doubt  or  controversy.  The  change  of 
place  from  the  subject  to  the  dominant  class  in 
a  despotic  community,  is  a  natural  and  easy 
change.  And  unless  the  blacks  and  whites  of 
the  subject  class  in  the  Southern  States  are  ele 
vated  to  the  rank,  and  inspired  with  the  princi 
ples  of  equals  among  equals  in  a  democratic 
community,  as  sure  as  that  the  dead  carcass 
breeds  worms,  so  sure  is  it  that  the  dominant 
class  will  not  long  be  wanting,  and  the  despotic 
form  of  Southern  society  will  be  preserved,  with 
more  or  less  detriment  and  peril  to  the  demo 
cratic  North.  And  those  Northern-born  and 
Northern-bred  politicians  who  are  laboring  with 
intense  persistency,  by  opposing  the  emancipa 
tion  war  policy,  to  conserve  the  interests  of 
self-immolated  slave-holders,  are  thereby  doing 
all  that  God  has  placed  it  in  their  power  to 
do,  to  forge  and  fasten  on  their  own  posterity, 
and  on  all  the  freemen  of  the  North,  the  same 
inhuman  despotism,  which,  at  this  hour  is  sub 
mitting  to  every  Southern  white  man  between 
the  ages  of  sixteen  and  forty-five  (sixty  in  some 
states),  who  is  not  the  owner  of  twenty  slaves, 
the  cool  alternative  of  placing  himself  in  the 
front  of  a  deadly  fight  for  destroying  the  gov 
ernment  of  his  .fathers,  or  among  those  who 


IMPORTANT  ALTERNATIVES.          133 

are  being  led  out  by  scores,  and  shot  down  like 
dogs,  for  not  obeying  their  leaders.* 

*  CINCINNATI,  Sept.  15, 1863.  The  Gazette  has  a  Leavenworth  despatch 
which  says :  "  Gen.  Blunt  at  last  accounts  was  at  Fort  Gibson,  preparing 
to  start  for  Fort  Scott.  Refugees  from  the  rebel  conscription  are  coming 
into  Blunt's  lines  by  hundreds.  Their  sufferings  are  represented  as  inde 
scribable.  More  than  one  hundred  Union  men  have  been  shot  and  hung  at 
Fort  Smith  since  the  rebellion  begun."  The  Nashville  Union  of  the  6th 
October,  1863,  says:  "It  is  not  known,  we  believe,  that  the  privilege  of 
habeas  corpus  has  been  suspended  altogether  in  the  Confederacy,  for  over 
twelve  months.  We  have  the  highest  judicial  authority  for  stating  this 
fact,  although  we  cannot  give  any  name.  The  suspension  was  made  by  a 
private  order  of  Jeff.  Davis  to  the  leading  judicial  officers,  and  never  has 
been  published.  Probably  not  one  man  in  fifty  thousand  in  all  Rebeldom  is 
aware  that  for  over  twelve  months,  the  privilege  of  habeas  corpus  has  not 
existed  in  the  South  at  all.  Our  authority  on  this  point,  we  repeat,  is 
•unquestionable."  A  volume  might  be  filled  with  similar  accounts. 


XXIII. 

RECAPITULATION — THE  SEVERAL  WAYS  IN  WHICH  SLAVERY 
ACTS,  TO  RECONVERT  MASTERS  BACK  FROM  DEMOCRACY 
TO  DESPOTISM,  AND  TO  CONFER  ON  THEM  WARLIKE  QUAL 
ITIES. 

WE  have  now  considered  in  detail,  to  the  ex 
tent  proposed,  the  operation  of  slavery  as  it  has 
existed  since  the  change  that  was  wrought  in  it 
after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  ;  namely,  its 
operation  to  convert  back  to  despotism  the  sons 
of  sires  who  fought,  bled,  toiled,  and  sacrificed, 
without  remission  and  without  reserve,  to  win 
the  independence  of  our  common  country,  and 
to  establish  within  it  the  glorious  fabric  of  free 
government,  an  achievement  which  has  brought 
more  of  hope  and  joy  and  of  substantial  happi 
ness  to  the  human  family  than  any  other  event 
that  has  occurred  since  the  dawn  of  time,  except 
the  advent  of  the  Christ  of  God. 

We  have  seen  that  slavery,  in  its  modern 
form,  necessarily  concentrates  such  an  enormous 
amount  of  imperilled  interest,  antagonistic  to 
everything  tliat  pertains  to  freedom,  as  would 
overthrow  a  stronger  government  than  ours,  had 

184 


RECAPITULATION.  135 

not  the  potent  cause  of  freedom  rapidly  and 
gloriously  accumulated  to  itself  an  amount  of 
population  and  resources  that  wellnigh  out 
weighs  the  available  resources  of  the  remaining 
portion  of  the  world.  We  have  seen  that,  in 
addition  to  vast  pecuniary  interest,  the  loose 
luxuriance  of  a  semi-barbarous  state  of  society, 
the  intoxicating  sweets  of  despotic  sway,  and  a 
powerful  practical  predominance  in  all  national 
affairs,  —  all  which  to  their  possessors  depend 
on  the  maintenance  of  the  slave  system,  —  the 
dreaded  horrors  of  slave  insurrection  are  per 
petually  impending,  to  enforce  on  the  "  master 
class  "  a  unity  of  purpose,  a  harmony  of  action, 
a  subjugating  of  every  voluntary  power  to  the 
one  ruling  necessity,  which  is,  of  itself,  the  high 
est,  strongest,  form  of  despotism.  We  have 
seen  that  lifelong  compliance  with  this  enforced 
necessity  of  despotic  action  must  mould  and 
fashion  the  character  of  the  slave-holder,  whether 
he  will  or  not,  with  all  the  features  of  a  despot. 
We  have  seen  that  the  habit  of  command,  if 
that  term  be  used  to  cover  the  attendant  pecu 
liarities  of  the  habit  it  describes,  together  with 
the  advantages  resulting  to  them  from  their 
own  enforced  unity  of  action  and  concentration 
of  interest,  has  inclined  and  enabled  a  few  thou 
sand  slave-holders,  not  only  to  mould  and  man- 


136  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

age  their  own  seven  and  three-fourths  millions 
of  non-slave-holding  white  population,  like  pot 
ters'  clay,  but,  in  the  legislative,  executive,  and 
judicial  branches  of  our  national  government, 
to  do  everything  they  could  desire,  except  fa 
tally  to  suppress  the  rapid  increase  of  numbers 
and  material  prosperity  at  the  North. 

We  have  seen  that,  aside  from  the  direct  effect 
of  slave-holding  to  despotize  the  principles  and 
habits  of  the  master,  the  influence  of  negro 
associations  from  youth  to  hoary  age,  from  gen 
eration  to  generation,  must  have  a  powerful 
effect,  in  his  comparative  seclusion  from  other 
society,  to  depress  and  barbarize  the  standard 
of  his  civilization, —  thus  giving  powerful  collat 
eral  aid  to  his  natural  lust  for  gain  and  lust  for 
despotic  power  ;  also  to  disincline  and  unfi  him 
to  return  to  the  political  preferences  and  affec 
tions  of  his  fathers,  and  to  do  away  with  the 
compunctions  he  might  otherwise  be  supposed 
to  have,  for  using  the  despotic  power  he  pos 
sessed  in  a  barbarous  way  and  for  barbarous 
purposes. 

A  state  of  war  is  perfectly  normal  to  a  des 
potism.  It  is  the  reverse  of  this  to  a  democracy. 
So  much  so,  that  even  democratic  material  has 
to  be  thrown  into  grades  of  subordinate  and 


RECAPITULATION.  137 

commander,  and  the  whole  placed  under  a  despotic 
head,  before  it  can  be  called  an  army,  or  become 
at  all  reliable  for  fighting  purposes.  We  have  seen 
that  a  state  of  mastership  over  a  subject  race,  as 
the  negro  race  is  held  in  the  Southern  States 
in  recent  years,  is,  and  necessarily  must  be,  a 
state  of  war,  and  calls  into  constant  and  vigorous 
exercise  all  those  accomplishments  of  strategy,  re- 
connoissance,  inscrutable  reticence,  and  decisive 
action,  which  are  the  highest  attainments  of  the 
warlike  leader;  while  the  act  of  corporal  pun 
ishment,  which  must  be  perpetually  pending, 
and  more  or  less  frequently  performed,  serves  to 
brutalize  the  finer  feelings,  and  divest  the  state 
of  actual  war  of  much  of  the  repugnance  with 
which  it  would  necessarily  present  itself  to  other 
classes  of  society. 


XXIV. 

ANTAGONISM  OF  DESPOTISM  AND  DEMOCRACY  OVERT  AND  TAN 
GIBLE  —  MILITARY  ORGANIZATION  AND  ACTION  PERFECTLY 
NATURAL  AND  HEALTHFUL  TO  A  DESPOTISM,  BUT  DIFFI 
CULT  AND  DESTRUCTIVE  TO  A  DEMOCRACY. 

IT  has  been  stated  in  the  foregoing  pages  of 
this  work,  that  despotism  and  democracy,  sla 
very  and  free  government,  are  inimical  to  each 
other, —  that  exterminating  hostility  must  rage 
between  them  till  one  or  the  other  perishes, 
wherever  they  coexist. 

This  is  not  a  mere  antagonism  of  abstract 
principles.  The  antagonism  of  principle  works 
itself  out  in  concrete  form ;  and  the  different 
steps  of  its  operation  are  not  too  secret  to  be 
uncovered  and  explained. 

In  no  respect  is  this  overt  antagonism  more 
apparent  than  in  the  military  qualities  which 
despotism  imparts,  the  military  grades  it  im 
poses,  the  military  strength  it  relies  upon,  and 
the  military  spirit  and  habits  which  it  produces ; 
while  the  action  of  democracy  is  the  reverse  of 
this  in  every  particular. 

In   monarchical  government,  the  whole   reli- 

188 


DEMOCRACY  PACIFIC.  139 

ance  for  securing  immunity  from  an  invasion  of 
national  territory  or  rights  is  military  strength, 
which  bids  defiance  to  the  power  that  threatens 
wrong.  As  soon  as  wrong  is  threatened,  mili 
tary  qualities  are  put  in  action  to  forestall  the 
execution  of  that  threat ;  whereas,  in  the  demo 
cratic  community,  the  principle  acted  on  is,  that 
if  there  is  no  tension,  there  will  be  no  rupture ; 
if  there  is  no  compression,  there  will  be  no  ex 
plosion.  Entirely  occupied  in  developing  their 
own  resources  of  peace,  the  people  of  a  demo 
cratic  community  naturally  judge  others  by 
themselves,  and  suppose  that  every  civil  com 
munity  is  so  employed.  They  think  little  of 
the  need  of  defence,  and  have  no  motive  to 
assail.  Peace  is  to  them  so  much  more  profit 
able  than  war,  they  are  slow  to  believe  that 
other  nations  regard  their  interest  in  a  different 
light.  Indeed,  it  is  no  small  source  of  their  felt 
security,  that  from  their  example  of  affluence, 
and  from  the  lucrativeness  of  their  commerce,  it 
is  really  more  profitable  for  their  neighbor  to  be 
at  peace  than  to  be  at  war  with  them.  The 
very  contagion  of  their  open,  tolerant,  and  un- 
warlike  feeling  exerts  no  small  influence  to 
keep  other  nations  from  aggression.  From  the 
very  constitution  of  society,  organically  des 
titute  of  a  watchful  head  or  leaders  who  feel 


140  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

themselves  habitually  responsible  for  the  wel 
fare  of  the  whole,  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
alarm  a  democratic  community;  and  still  more 
difficult  to  obtain  effective  action,  where  action 
depends  on  the  spontaneously  harmonious  move 
ment  of  the  headless  and  disintegrated  mass. 
And  when  the  democratic  people  do  move  for 
military  effect,  it  is  only  by  an  abandoning  of 
their  characteristic  state  and  modes  of  action, 
and  adopting  those  of  despotism,  to  such  an  ex 
tent  as  to  incur  some  danger  that  they  will  not, 
when  war  is  over,  readily  return  to  democratic 
form.  And  were  the  object  fought  for  any  other 
than  to  repel  an  assault  on  their  civil  liberties, 
the  danger  would  be  imminent,  that  free  princi 
ples  would  be  affected  unfavorably  by  their 
course  of  action.  So  that  in  addition  to  the 
peril  of  being  subjugated  by  military  force,  such 
is  the  repugnance  of  a  state  of  civil  freedom  to 
a  state  of  war  that  a  democratic  government  is 
in  imminent  peril  of  being  worried  out  of  exist 
ence  as  a  democracy,  by  the  perpetual  menace 
and  irritation  of  a  despotic  institution  within 
its  boundaries,  or  a  despotic  government  located 
on  its  borders. 

Such  a  despotic  government  on  its  border, 
having,  as  all  neighboring  governments  have,  or 
suppose  themselves  to  have,  continually,  some 


WAR  DESTRUCTIVE   TO   DEMOCRACY.  141 

causes  of  complaint  against  its  neighbor,  and 
naturally  and  necessarily  resorting  to  military 
menace  to  obtain  redress  and  secure  future  re 
spect,  thereby  forces  on  its  democratic  neighbor 
the  necessity  of  frequently  abandoning  her  nat 
ural  modes  of  action,  of  sensibly  interrupting 
the  lucrative  employments  of  her  citizens,  to 
assume  a  warlike  attitude  and  assume  the  grad 
ing  and  the  drill,  and  take  up  the  weapons,  of 
despotism  to  repel  threatened  assault. 

So  great  is  the  peril  from  this  source  that 
under  the  supervision  of  divine  Intelligence,  no 
permanently  democratic  government  came  into 
existence  until  a  -whole  broad  continent  had 
been  prepared  and  set  apart  for  its  develop 
ment,  with  broad  and  effective  ocean  barriers 
on  every  side  between  it  and  the  nearest  des 
potic  power.  And  the  practical  success  of  ocean 
steam  navigation,  which  has  brought  the  oppo 
site  shores  of  these  barrier  waters  so  near  to 
gether,  was  not  permitted  to  take  place  until 
the  democratic  power  on  this  continent  had 
passed  the  perils  of  its  infancy.  If  leading 
Southerners  or  their  allies  and  abettors,  the 
monarchists  of  Europe,  are  aiming,  through  the 
unguardedness  of  the  present  national  adminis 
tration,  or  the  so-called  Democratic  party  of  the 
North,  to  subvert  and  finally  ruin  the  democratic 


142  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF   SECESSION. 

institutions  of  this  country,  as  they  doubtless 
very  well  understand,  nothing  else  is  necessary 
to  that  result  but  the  recognition  of  a  Southern 
government,  founded  on  slavery  as  its  capital 
institution. 


XXY. 

SAME  GENERAL  SUBJECT  CONTINUED  —  THE  POOR  WHITES  OP 
A  SLAVE-HOLDING  COMMUNITY  EQUIVALENT  TO  A  STAND 
ING  ARMY,  WHEN  CONTRASTED  WITH  THE  DESTITUTION  OF 
COMBATANTS  WHICH  MARKS  A  DEMOCRACY. 

THE  overt  antagonism  of  monarchy  to  free 
government,  bodied  forth  by  the  slave  interest 
in  the  South,  against  the  active  freedom  of  the 
Northern  portion  of  this  country,  is,  perhaps,  in 
nothing  more  apparent  than  in  the  idleness  it 
induces  in  the  great  majority  of  the  Southern 
whites.  This  is  done,  in  part,  by  rendering  labor 
disreputable,  —  throwing  a  stench  of  servility,  an 
air  of  degradation,  about  industrial  pursuits,  fol 
lowed  for  the  honest  earning  of  one's  livelihood. 

It  is  done,  in  part,  by  rendering  labor  unne 
cessary  to  the  whites.  The  mild  climate,  with 
scarcely  any  winter,  reduces  the  list  of  absolutely 
necessary  things  for  one  to  live  on,  to  a  very 
small  number  and  amount.  The  abundance 
with  which  these  are  produced,  under  a  South 
ern  sun,  makes  them  easily  attained.  The  great 
profit  of  slave-labor  leaves  much  to  be  disposed 
of  by  the  slave-holder  gratuitously  to  friends 

143 


144  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

and  dependents,  and  semi-gratuito'isly  to  all  who 
need.  The  characteristic  and  habitually  easy 
handling,  by  the  masters,  of  what  their  negroes 
earn,  serves  to  throw  an  odor  of  niggardliness  on 
the  small  earnings  and  savings  of  one  who  works 
with  his  own  hands.  The  same  result  is  still 
farther  promoted  by  the  monopolizing  of  the 
land,  and  of  the  production  of  the  great  staples 
of  trade  by  the  wealthy  slave-owner,  leaving 
very  scanty  resources  for  the  white  man  to 
spend  his  industry  on,  unless  he  goes  with  the 
negroes  into  the  field,  for  negro  wages,  which 
almost  none  will  do. 

The  result  is,  that  the  poor  whites,  who  con 
stitute  the  immense  majority  of  the  whole  South 
ern  population,  lie  perpetually  in  unconfined 
idleness,  with  nothing  to  lose,  and  little  to 
fear,  from  any  change  of  circumstances;  ever 
ready,  at  the  shortest  notice,  to  be  constituted 
into  a  military  force,  without  pay  or  rations, 
to  be  precipitated  upon  any  offending  or  unof 
fending  neighbor,  at  the  option  of  their  natural 
leaders,  the  slave-holders ;  thus  constituting  a 
force  but  few  removes  from  a  standing  army, 
perpetually  menacing  those,  who,  being  demo 
crats,  must  necessarily  be  hated  by  the  despotic 
slave-holders. 

The  full  force  of  this  standing  menace  is  not 


SOLDIERS   HARD   TO   RAISE  IN   A  DEMOCRACY.      145 

perceived  until  the  peculiar  character  of  the 
community  against  which  it  is  directed  is  brought 
to  view.  It  is  a  community  of  preeminently 
industrious,  thriving,  individuals.  The  pressure 
of  dictatorial  authority,  and  its  hampering  institu 
tions,  has  long  since  been  removed.  With  almost 
the  freedom  of  the  savage  state  are  combined  the 
refined  enlightenment,  the  upward  aspirations, 
and  the  susceptibility  of  being  injured,  peculiar 
to  the  highest  civilization.  The  humblest  indi 
vidual  in  that  community,  excepting  a  few  who 
are  a  prey  to  rare  vices  or  misfortunes,  has  the 
prospect  of  easy  competency,  and  an  open  road, 
if  he  chooses  to  follow  it,  to  positions  of  the 
highest  social  eminence.  The  consequence  is, 
that  there  is  hardly  a  class,  however  small,  who 
can  be  spared  to  take  up  arms,  and  meet  the 
standing  menace  of  the  South.  Whoever  does 
this  has,  in  most  instances,  to  leave  a  suffering 
family  and  a  neglected  business.  Our  own  mer 
chant  marine  cannot  be  manned  without  draw 
ing  largely  on  the  aid  of  foreigners.  Except  a 
few  for  officers,  our  native-born  citizens  can  be 
better  employed.  When  the  worst  has  come, 
and  an  army  must  be  raised  to  defend  the  North, 
in  the  absence  of  despotic  coercion  to  enforce 
sacrifice,  enormous  outlays  must  be  incurred  in 
wages,  bounties,  subsistence,  and  pensions,  to  fill 


13 


146  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

the  army  ranks  with  men,  who  are  accustomed 
to  every  comfort,  and  to  the  enjoyment  of  more 
or  less  accumulated  and  still  accumulating  wealth. 
Aside  from  the  enormous  public  expense,  to 
induce  the  enlistment  of  these  men,  and  the 
pecuniary  sacrifice  that  many  of  them  still  make 
by  enlisting,  they  feel  it  to  be  a  great  sacrifice 
to  leave  their  quiet  and  happy  homes,  for  the 
perils  and  privations  inseparable  from  a  cam 
paign  ;  whereas,  the  Southern  ranks,  by  a  simple 
authoritative  decree,  are  filled  with  men  who 
have  nothing  to  leave,  and  nothing  to  peril,  but 
the  semi-enjoyment  of  a  degraded,  ignorant,  and 
poverty-stricken  existence,  by  being  drafted  into 
a  Southern  army,  without  pay,  subsistence,  or 
clothing,  to  any  considerable  amount,  beyond 
what  they  can  supply  themselves  with,  or  plun 
der  from  friends  or  foes,*  and  all  at  the  bid  of 
despots  whose  dictation  they  are  almost  "  un- 
gifted  with  any  ability  to  resist,"  —  The  North, 

*  "  Many  a  Northern  man,  of  the  pickets  especially,  has  been  killed  for 
his  clothes." — Army  correspondent. 

A  correspondent  of  the  Lowell  Neics,  who  has  lately  escaped  from  Savan 
nah,  tells  the  following  story :  — 

"  After  the  assault  on  Fort  Wagner,  when  Colonel  Shaw  was  killed,  a 
rebel  soldier  was  showing  his  boots  in  Savannah,  and  bragging  how  he  got 
them.  He  said  he  attempted  to  take  them  off  a  Yankee  soldier  on  that  fatal 
field,  who,  though  wounded,  remonstrated,  saying  there  were  dead  ones 
enough  from  whom  he  might  take  a  pair.  Then,  with  a  fiendish  exultation, 
he  went  on  to  say  how  he  thought  he  wouldn't  rob  the  wounded,  so,  putting 
his  bayonet  through  the  man's  heart,  he  took  the  boots  and  came  away.  If 
devils  ever  dance,  that  fellow  should  be  counted  in,  boots  and  all." 


SLAVERY   AND   DEMOCRACY   INCOMPATIBLE.         147 

at  the  same  time,  not  only  having  no  competent 
leaders,  but,  from  the  construction  and  habits  of 
its  society,  being  almost  incapable  of  producing 
leaders  competent  to  conduct  its  affairs,  in  a 
state  of  war,  to  any  satisfactory  result. 

Under  these  circumstances,  aside  from  the  in 
delible  disgrace,  enfeeblement,  and  humiliation, 
of  parting  with  a  needed  portion  of  our  national 
domain,  to  permit  the  establishment  of  a  slave- 
holding  confederacy  on  the  borders  of  this  re 
public  would  be  about  as  bald  a  suicide  as  a 
nation  of  idiots  could  commit. 

A  perpetual  series  of  alarms,  which  the  lead 
ers  of  such  a  confederacy  would  instinctively 
be  raising,  at  no  cost  to  themselves,  and  for  mere 
amusement,  would,  in  a  few  years,  worry  the 
Northern  democratic  government  out  of  exist 
ence,  by  keeping  it  in  a  state  of  afflicted  uncer 
tainty,  more  disastrous  to  its  delicate  and  ,varied 
industrial  and  commercial  interests  than  actual 
war.  No  sane  man  can  pretend  that  treaties 
with  such  a  confederacy  would  avail  any  more 
than  did  the  official  oaths  of  the  traitor  senators, 
congressmen,  and  cabinet  officers,  who  gendered 
it. 


XXVI. 

VIEW  OF  THE  ALTERED  CONDITION  OF  AFFAIRS  IN  1860,  COM 
PARED  WITH  1789  —  WAS  THE  PRESENT  PRECIPITATION  OF 
HOSTILITIES  NECESSARY? — AS  VIEWED  BY  NORTHERN  MEN, 
IT  WAS  NOT  —  AS  VIEWED  BY  SOUTHERN  MEN,  IT  WAS. 

IN  the  light  of  the  foregoing  reflections,  we 
are,  perhaps,  prepared  to  make  some  just  esti 
mate  of  the  real  and  immediate  causes  of  the 
existing  war.  In  attempting  to  do  so,  we  find 
that  natural  history  is  encroaching  more  nearly 
than  before  on  the  boundaries  of  history  proper ; 
and  the  natural  causes  which  we  have  hitherto 
been  tracing  in  their  action,  irrespectively  of 
any  human  design  or  intelligent  purpose,  will 
henceforth  be  bodying  themselves  forth  in  the 
intelligent  purpose  and  resolute  action  of  the 
prime  movers  of  this  nefarious  Rebellion. 

Slavery,  as  we  now  are  called  to  look  upon  it, 
has  advanced  from  the  state  of  unimportance 
and  of  non-influence  in  which  it  did  not  interfere 
with  the  declaration  of  our  independence,  or  the 
adoption  of  our  national  Constitution,  in  1776- 
'89,  to  a  condition  of  all-moulding  influence  and 
incalculable  pecuniary  importance,  in  1860.  It 

148 


INFLUENCE  OF  SLAVERY  IN   I860.  149 

has  moulded  Southern  society  into  the  grades 
of  despotism.  It  has  reduced  the  mass  of  non- 
slave-holding  whites  to  a  state  of  degraded  igno 
rance  and  poverty,  bereft  of  any  capacity  or 
disposition  to  controvert  the  authority  of  any 
body  who  may  assume  to  dictate  to  them.  It 
has,  by  its  necessary  action,  moulded  the  senti 
ments  and  habits  of  the  master,  to  the  purest, 
fiercest  form  of  despotism,  reversing  the  demo 
cratic  character  and  devotion  of  his  illustrious 
sires,  and  putting  him  under  the  pressure  of 
pecuniary  and  social  influences  adequate  to  dis 
pel  all  hesitancy  as  to  maintaining  his  present 
position.  He  has  retained  just  enough  of  de 
mocracy  to  serve  as  a  rule  of  harmonious  action 
between  himself  and  his  fellow-despots,  as  they 
serve  together,  with  one  heart  and  one  mind,  in 
profound  obedience  to  the  dictates  of  their  one 
consolidated  interest.  The  practice  of  holding 
slaves  has  conferred  on  him  almost  all  the  qual 
ities  of  a  military  strategist  and  leader,  in  a 
high  degree ;  has  done  much  to  divest  him  of 
any  aversion  to  a  state  of  war,  and  he  has  be 
come  conscious  of  his  irresponsible  sway  over 
the  mass  of  poor  whites  in  his  own  section. 

The  practice  of  slave-holding  has  also  conferred 
on  the  master  the  faculty  of  controlling,  and  its 
stringent  necessities  have  supplied  him  with  an 


150  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

efficient  motive  to  control  the  policy,  and,  to  a 
great  extent,  the  action,  in  detail,  of  the  general 
government. 

The  question  here  presents  itself,  demanding 
to  be  answered,  whether  natural  causes,  at  this 
time,  necessitated  a  precipitation  of  the  armed 
conflict.  Had  the  antagonistic  principle  of  des 
potism,  as  prevailing  at  the  South,  so  far  ex 
pressed  itself  in  overt  injury  and  annoyance  as 
to  force  the  North  into  armed  resistance  ?  Or 
had  the  material  and  numerical  progress  of  the 
North  rendered  it  unsafe  for  the  South  longer  to 
count  on  her  forbearance  ? 

Looking  at  the  question  from  a  Northern  po 
sition,  and  with  the  mild,  tolerant  eye  of  a  Dem 
ocrat,  there  was,  at  this  time,  no  necessity  of  a 
rupture.  Innocently  supposing  others  to  be  as 
open  and  honest  as  themselves,  fully  occupied 
by  their  several  schemes  of  individual  aggran 
dizement,  the  Northern  politicians  had  never 
extended  their  investigations  so  far  as  to  discover 
that  there  was  working  in  the  South  a  govern 
mental  principle,  potent,  vital,  and  aggressive, 
inimical  to  their  spirit  and  practices  of  freedom. 
That  the  Constitution  bound  them  to  non-inter 
ference  with  slavery  in  the  States  was  univer 
sally  admitted.  And  had  the  South  been  satisfied 
with  this,  and  with  the  lenient  exercise  of  their 


SOUTHERN  LEADERS  NEVER  TRUST.       151 

own  predominance  in  the  general  administration, 
no  class  or  number  of  alarmists  could  h'ave  roused 
the  North  to  acts  of  overt  hostility. 

But  look  at  the  same  question  from  a  South 
ern  point  of  view,  with  the  eye  of  a  tyrant's 
jealousy  and  suspicion,  as  he  stands  surrounded 
by  the  imminent  and  enormous  perils  of  servile 
insurrectionary  disturbance,  beneath  the  shadow 
of  a  vast  and  growing  governmental  force, 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  democracy,  and  neces 
sarily  inimical  to  the  despotic  system  which  he 
has  wrapped  about  him  till  he  could  not  rid  him 
self  of  it  if  he  would,  and  a  different  answer  had 
to  be  given.  To  wield  the  political  influence,  and 
to  conserve  the  interests  of  concentrated  slavery, 
devolved  on  men  who  never  trusted  in  anything 
which  they  could  not  control,  never  asked  for 
anything  which  they  could  not  exact,  never 
commended  any  course  of  action  which  they 
could  not  compel.  Their  character  was  the  ne 
cessary  result  of  their  education.  Hardly  any 
body,  that  had  not  been  trained  on  the  deck  of 
a  pirate  or  of  a  slave-ship,  could  be  expected  to 
comprehend  their  motives,  or  to  predict  their 
course  of  action. 


XXVII. 

LEADING  SOUTHERNERS  DETERMINE  TO  DIVIDE  THE  UNIOX — 
THIRTY  YEARS  SPENT  IN  MATURING  AND  PREPARING  TO  EX 
ECUTE  THE  DETERMINATION  —  STEPS  TAKEN  TO  THAT  END. 

ALTHOUGH,  in  the  early  history  of  the  govern 
ment,  the  Southern  or  Slave  States  outweighed 
the  North  in  territorial  extent  and  population, 
yet  it  soon  became  apparent  that  the  principles 
of  free  government,  as  carried  out  at  the  North, 
were  operating  to  develop  the  resources  of  that 
section  to  an  unparalleled  degree,  and  were  secur 
ing  to  it  almost  the  entire  influx  of  foreign  pop 
ulation.  Its  territorial  expansion,  which  could 
not  be  checked,  could  only  be  equalled  for  a 
time  by  a  forced  expansion  on  the  part  of  the 
South. 

This  constantly  augmenting  preponderance 
on  the  part  of  the  North  never  escaped  the  no 
tice  or  due  consideration  of  leading  Southern 
ers.  They  were  for  thirty  years  counting  on 
the  hour  when  their  domination  in  the  general 
government  would  be  hopelessly  outweighed, 
and  the  temporizing  shifts  to  which  they  long 

162 


EARLY  PURPOSE    TO    DIVIDE    THE    UNION.  153 

resorted  to  keep  up  their  practical  predomi 
nance  could  no  longer  be  relied  on.  They  had 
taken  these  thirty  years  to  deliberate  on  the 
course  they  would  pursue  in  the  foreseen  emer 
gency;  with  characteristic  reticence  they  had 
concealed  their  conclusion,  and  taken  all  the 
preparatory  steps  necessary  to  carry  their  pur 
pose  into  execution.  The  repugnance  that  ex 
isted  between  their  own  system  and  what  they 
were  sometimes  pleased  to  call  the  "  agrarian- 
ism  "  *  of  the  North,  they  had  deeply  pondered 
and  justly  weighed. 

The  continued  coexistence  of  the  two  antag 
onistic  forces  within  the  limits  of  one  govern 
ment,  they  never  were  stupid  enough  to  ex 
pect. 

From  the  time  that  the  profitable  expansion 
of  the  business  of  producing  cotton  became 
an  admitted  fact,  they  had  turned  their  backs 
irrevocably  on  all  projects  looking  toward  eman 
cipation,  or  toward  any  considerable  relaxation 
of  the  rigor  of  the  slave-system  as  then  prac 
tised. 


*  The  practical  abandonment  of  those  class  distinctions  without  which 
a  monarchical  form  of  society  has  no  existence.  And,  as  a  real  monarchist 
never  admits,  never  even  conceived  of,  the  existence  of  government  with 
out  sovereigns,  one  or  more,  "  agrarianism  "  is  a  mild  expression  to  de 
scribe  the  anarchy,  the  utter  absence  of  all  government,  which  ho  necessa 
rily  supposes  to  exist  where  there  is  no  governing  class. 


154  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

Nothing  remained  to  them  but  prospective 
separation  from  the  Federal  Union.* 

Men  of  their  antecedents  an£  surroundings, 
of  their  character,  and  in  their  circumstances, 
could  have  come  to  no  other  conclusion.  Noth 
ing  remained  contingent  but  the  time  and  mode 
of  bringing  the  separation  about.  Thus  the 
minds  of  leading  Southern  men  were  educated 
for  a  generation  under  the  influence  of  the  de 
liberate  purpose  to  establish  a  separate  Southern 
government.  Nor  was  this  the  educating  influ 
ence  of  a  mere  idle  purpose.  The  revolution 
that  separated  Texas  from  Mexico  was  a  bold 
and  successful  step,  planned  and  executed  by 
Southern  adventurers  in  aid  of  that  design. 
The  subsequent  admission  of  Texas  to  the  Un 
ion,  the  consequent  war  with  Mexico,  and  the 
acquisition  of  New  Mexico,  California,  and  Ari 
zona,  were  all  so  many  successive  steps  brought 
about  in  obedience  to  the  same  design. 

*  Once  out  from  under  the  national  Constitution,  with  four  or  more  mil 
lions  of  blacks  in  utter  subjugation,  and  eight  or  more  millions  of  whites 
whom  they  can  shoot  and  hang  with  impunity,  with  half  the  former  na 
tional  territory  and  coast  whereon  to  raise  armies  and  navies,  with  the  ac 
knowledged  right  to  make  foreign  alliances  and  treaties,  without  any  nat 
ural  boundary  between  their  territory  and  the  Northern  States,  these  men 
never  doubted  their  governmental  ability  to  keep  the  North  so  perpetually 
in  hot  water,  as  effectually  to  check  its  material  progress,  and  to  teach  its 
money-earning,  money-saving  population,  that  not  only  black  men  but 
white  men  "  have  no  rights  which  "  a  slave-holding  cotton  lord  "  is  bound 
to  respect." 


STEPS  EARLY  TAKEN  TOWARD  SEPARATION.         155 

The  incurring  of  enormous  debts  (perhaps 
only  constructively)  by  the  State  of  Texas,  to 
certain  of  her  citizens,  and  the  subsequent  as 
suming  of  these  debts  by  the  general  govern 
ment,  constituted,  perhaps,  one  of  the  first  of 
a  series  of  acts,  designed  to  impoverish  the 
North,  or  the  general  government,  preparatory 
to  the  coming  separation. 

The  writer  of  these  pages  was  personally  cog 
nizant  of  the  fact,  that  eighteen  years  before 
the  civil  disturbances  in  Kansas  took  place,  un 
der  the  administration  of  President  Pierce,  it 
wras  the  plan  of  leading  slave-holders  to  "  bring 
the  question  of  the  extension  of  slavery,  to  an 
issue  of  arms  on  some  territory  external  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  any  State  government."  It  was 
presumed  that  Northern  men  would  not  fight, 
and  that  slight  demonstrations  of  prowess  on 
the  part  of  Southerners  would  enable  the  latter 
to  have  matters  all  their  own  way.  It  was  a 
refinement  on  this  original  design,  to  have  the 
general  government,  in  the  hands  of  Southern 
men,  with  such  an  automaton  as  Frank  Pierce 
in  the  executive  chair,  make  armed  demonstra 
tions  in  behalf  of  slave  extension,  with  a  view, 
if  possible,  to  betray  the  freedom-loving  North 
into  acts  of  overt  hostility  against  the  Federal 
government,  and  bring  on  a  war  against  slavery, 


156  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

with  the  treasury,  the  authority,  the  army  and 
navy  of  the  general  government  on  the  South 
ern  side  in  the  conflict. 

The  outrages  committed  against  the  Free- 
State  men  and  their  property,  lives,  and  families 
in  Kansas,  were  not  accidental ;  they  were  a 
part  of  the  regular  plan,  ordered  and  insisted 
on  from  headquarters,  in  furtherance  of  the 
above  design.  But  with  the  hanging  of  John 
Brown  and  his  associates,  this  part  of  the  pro 
gramme  failed ;  except  so  far  as  its  prosecution 
had  availed  to  ferment  animosity  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  people;  to  supply  ma 
terial  for  misrepresenting  the  North  in  Southern 
sections,  and  to  supply  the  occasion  for  getting 
up  and  exercising  some  martial  spirit  among 
the  people  of  Virginia.* 

Kindred  to  these  operations  for  bringing  the 
North  into  overt  conflict  with  the  general  gov 
ernment,  was  the  plan  of  packing  the  supreme 
bench  of  the  United  States  Court,  with  a  view 
to  obtain  decisions  so  outrageously  violative  of 
the  principles  of  free-government,  as  to  weary 
out  the  patience  of  the  Northern  people  and 
exasperate  them  beyond  control. 

*  It  was  of  very  great  importance  to  the  success  of  their  subsequent  de 
signs,  civil  and  military,  that  the  Southern  leaders  should  have  this  occa 
sion  to  bring  their  own  abject  underlings  through  the  surprise  and  repug 
nance  of  a  first  taking-up  of  arms. 


ATTEMPTS  TO   IRRITATE  THE  NORTH.  157 

This  packing  of  the  United  States  Court  com 
menced  as  far  back  as  the  appointment  of 
Roger  B.  Taney  to  a  seat  upon  its  bench,  as  a 
reward  for  his  subserviency  in  removing  the 
treasury  deposits  from  the  United  States  Bank, 
an  act  of  doubtful  legality,  which  his  predeces 
sor  in  the  treasury  department  refused  to  do, 
in  obedience  to  General  Jackson's  imperious 
and  unreasonable  mandate. 

The  framing  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  with 
features  of  needless  harshness,  was  also  planned 
with  a  view  to  irritate  the  North  into  acts  of 
violence  against  the  general  government. 


12* 


XXVIII. 

ORIGIN  AND  OBJECT  OF    THE   PRO-SOUTHERN  POLITICAL   PARTY 
UNDER  JACKSON. 

THE  annexing  of  territory  to  the  South  and 
West,  with  a  view  to  increase  the  territorial  pre 
ponderance  of  the  slave  section,  and  favor  the 
multiplication  of  Slave  States,  the  depletion 
of  the  United  States  treasury,  to  add  absolute 
and  comparative  wealth  to  the  South,  the  bring 
ing  of  the  slavery  controversy  to  an  issue  of 
arms  on  the  territory,  the  planned  and  perpe 
trated  enormities  on  the  Free-State  settlers  in 
Kansas,  and  the  needless  harshness  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  with  other  like  efforts  to  irritate  the 
North  into  acts  of  overt  hostility  to  the  general 
government,  while  that  government  was  yet  in 
the  hands  of  Southern  leaders,  and  the  packing 
of  the  United  States  .Court,  were  all  measures 
of  secondary  importance,  compared  with  the 
grand  scheme  of  corrupting,  dividing,  and  pre 
occupying  the  North,  by  means  of  the  so-called 
Democratic  party.  This  qualified  term  is  here 
used  to  designate  this  important  political  frater- 


TWO   EABLY  POLITICAL   PARTIES.  159 

nity,  not  as  an  expression  of  disrespect,  but  be 
cause  their  favorite  self-applied  titles,  Democracy 
and  Democratic,  cannot  be  here  appropriated  as 
they  have  been  wont  to  use  them,  without  doing 
irreparable  violence  to  the  vocabulary  of  history- 
Soon  after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War, 
two  great  parties  developed  themselves  among 
the  constituency  and  leading  statesmen  of  the 
Union.  Difference  of  opinion  arid  of  preference, 
respecting  the  degree  to  which  governmental 
power  should  be  centralized  in  the  general  ad 
ministration,  to  the  disparagement  of  State  or 
ganizations,  appears  to  have  been  the  chief 
ground  of  difference  on  which  these  party  com 
binations  first  took  their  rise.  With  different 
degrees  of  intensity  in  the  cohesion  with  which 
their  several  elements  united,  with  some  variety, 
and  even  interchange  of  the  names  by  which, 
at  different  periods,  these  parties  were  severally 
designated,  and  with  more  or  less  change,  from 
time  to  time,  in  the  distinctive  principles,  or 
political  creeds,  on  wrhich  they  claimed  to  found 
the  different  courses  of  governmental  action 
which  they  severally  advocated,  these  two  great 
political  parties  continued  till  the  time  of  Jack 
son's  administration. 

This  appears  to  have  been,  more  than  any 


160  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

other,  the  period  of  a  commencing  transition  in 
the  condition  of  our  national  affairs,  —  a  com 
mencing  transition  from  a  state  of  comparative 
feebleness  and  peril  to  a  state  of  conscious  and 
defiant  strength, —  of  commencing  transition 
from  a  state  of  debt-incumbered  national  poverty 
and  enforced  economy  to  a  state  of  conscious 
pecuniary  ease  and  affluence,  which,  perhaps 
inevitably,  begets  looseness,  extravagance,  and 
corrupt  procedures. 

The  individual  character  of  President  Jackson 
himself,  also,  had  much  to  do  with  the  impress 
his  eight  years'  administration  left  on  the  coun 
try  in  general,  and  on  the  political  party  which 
sustained  him  in  particular.  Bold  and  energetic 
in  the  extreme,  by  birth  and  education  a  South 
erner  of  the  western  type,  proud  of  that  frank 
ness  and  honesty  which  does  much  to  gild  and 
give  eclat  even  to  the  strongest  vices,  a  soldier, 
accustomed  to  camp  habits  and  successful  cam 
paigns,  he  never  shrunk  from  the  assumption  of 
any  responsibility  which  he  thought  there  was 
occasion  to  exercise ;  confessedly  a  stranger  to 
any  higher  virtues  than  unbounded  devotion  to 
his  friends,  and  an  exterminating  vindictiveness 
toward  those  whom  he  viewed  as  enemies,  per 
haps  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  his  char 
acter  was  an  unguarded  susceptibility  of  being 


GEN.   JACKSON    AND   HIS    POLITICAL    PARTY.        161 

imposed  upon  by  those  who  succeeded  in  main 
taining  in  his  presence  a  friendly  attitude. 

His  bold,  frank,  energetic,  and  decided  char 
acter  gave  confidence  and  strength  to  his  politi 
cal  adherents,  who  never  allowed  themselves  to 
be  embarrassed  with  cumbering  creeds,  or  polit 
ical  doctrines,  that  did  not  work  well  for  the 
time  being ;  his  military  renown  proved  to  be 
a  profitable  basis  on  which  to  erect  political 
reputation ;  his  gallant  quashing  of  South  Caro 
lina's  insane  and  ill-timed  attempt  at  nullifying 
the  acts  of  the  general  government,  by  an  as 
sumption  of  supreme  power  on  behalf  of  the 
individual  State,  made  him  stand  well  at  the 
North,  while  his  supreme  rule  of  favoring  his 
friends,  and  disfavoring  his  opponents,  led  him 
to  prostitute  the  vast  and  growing  patronage  of 
the  general  executive  office  to  reward  the  servi 
ces  of  all  who  had  contributed  to  his  individual 
or  party  success. 

James  Buchanan,  whose  aid  had,  perhaps, 
availed  to  turn  the  doubtful  presidential  election 
in  Jackson's  favor,  and  who,  to  accomplish  this, 
had  perfidiously  turned  against  his  bosom  friend 
and  former  patron,  the  opposing  candidate,  was 
unblushingly  invited  to  reward  himself  with  the 
honors  and  emoluments  of  a  choice  embassy. 
The  present  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court, 


162  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

as  before  remarked,  was  given  this  place  as  a 
reward  for  services  of  doubtful  legality,  which 
his  more  honorable  predecessor  in  the  secretary 
ship  of  the  treasury  would  not  sell  himself  to 
perform.  The  ablest  graduates  of  the  naval 
and  military  academies  were  compelled  to  resign, 
or  take  rank  under  idle,  worthless  boys,  and 
used-up  politicians,  whose  only  claim  on  prefer 
ment  was,  that  they  or  their  friends  had  contrib 
uted  to  the  success  of  the  Jackson  party. 

The  result  was,  a  powerful  political  organiza 
tion,  having  for  its  ruling  principle  the  acquisi 
tion  and  retaining  of  office  for  the  sake  of  its 
patronage,  and  this  patronage  to  be  distributed 
as  the  reward  of  party  services. 


XXIX. 

THE    CHARACTERISTIC     PRINCIPLES    OF    JACKSON'S    POLITICAL 
PARTY. 

THE  scantiness  of  the  public  revenue,  and  the 
pressure  of  the  public  debt,  had  till  now  enforced 
a  frugality  that  had  kept  the  offices  of  the  gen 
eral  government  eminently  clear  of  the  herd  of 
cormorants,  that,  like  carrion  crows  about  a  pu 
trid  carcass,  persist  in  cursing  with  their  pestif 
erous  presence  the  government  whose  abun 
dant  resources  are  fitted  to  gratify  their  insa 
tiate  and  undiscriminating  appetites.  The  conse 
quence  was  that  ability  and  faithfulness  to  pub 
lic  trust  were  the  practical  and  recognized  pass 
ports  to  not  over-paying  offices.  But  now,  a 
plethoric  treasury,  ample  resources,  a  practi 
cally  extinguished  national  debt,  the  vast  and 
increasing  number  of  public  functionaries,  called 
for  by  the  rapidly-increasing  area  of  settled  ter 
ritory,  all  contributed  to  render  the  period  of 
Jackson's  administration  preeminently  tempting 
for  the  ingress  of  a  plundering  horde  to  the 
multiplied,  and  still  multiplying  subordinate  offi 
ces  in  the  gift  of  the  chief  executive. 

168 


164  NATURAL  HISTOEY  OF  SECESSION. 

To  this  peculiarity  of  the  times,  add  the  pe 
culiarity  of  President  Jackson's  personal  charac 
ter  as  put  forth  in  the  aphorism  which  he  un- 
blushingly  established  as  a  ruling  law  in  respect 
to  political  contestants, — "  To  the  victors  belong 
the  spoils/'  —  and  we  have  only  to  attribute  to 
the  community  around  him  an  ordinary  amount 
of  corruptibility,  in  order  to  predicate  of  his  po 
litical  adherents,  and  of  his  and  their  successors, 
qualifications  for  office  and  deportment  in  office, 
exactly  the  reverse  of  what  characterized  their 
predecessors. 

From  this  time  forward,  the  grand  aim  and 
study  of  every  political  man  necessarily  became, 
first,  the  art  of  controlling  voters ;  and  second, 
the  art  of  counteracting  the  efforts  of  rivals 
similarly  employed. 

Perhaps  the  purgatorial  fires  of  the  present 
war,  and  the  enormous  incumbrance  of  the  re 
sulting  war-debt,  are  the  easiest,  and  the  only 
agencies  capable  of  reversing  the  prevalent 
prostitutions  of  political  functions,  that  have 
been  induced  under  the  late  succession  of  so- 
called  Democratic  administrations. 

A  galaxy  of  preeminently  able  statesmen, 
who  defended  the  national  interests  at  that 
time,  coerced  the  administration  into  some  de 
cent  regard  for  appearances.  This  induced  con 
cealment  of  those  corruptions  which  would 


POLITICAL   CORRUPTION.  165 

otherwise  have  shocked  the  moral  sense  of  a 
hitherto  comparatively  virtuous  people ;  *  and, 
it  also  led  to  the  deeper  and  more  thorough 
planting  of  the  principles  to  which  the  then 
prevalent  party  owed  its  strength;  so  that  a  lon 
ger  time  was  secured  for  the  germinating  of 
those  principles,  and  the  people  were  gradually 
and  insensibly  accustomed  to  practices  of  politi 
cal  fraud  from  which  they  would  otherwise  have 
strongly  revolted. 

Those  statesmen  were  occupied  in  defending 
the  Constitution  and  the  first  principles  of  the 
government,  from  assaults  that  came  thick  and 
fast  upon  them,  under  the  august  profession  of 
the  policy  of  the  administration  ;  while  in  fact 
said  assaults  were  really  a  blind,  to  divert  atten 
tion  from  what  was  really  the  policy  of  the  ad 
ministration,  namely,  the  prostituting  of  all  the 
powers  of  government  to  party  purposes, —  to 
the  emolument  and  immunity  of  that  line  of 
succession  which  was  to  be  filled  with  the  most 
active  and  least-principled  individuals  who  should 
rise  to  the  surface  in  that  polluted  caldron,  the 
so-called  Democratic  organization. 

*Not  far  from  the  close  of  Jackson's  administration,  the  buildings  of  both 
the  Post  Office  and  Treasury  Departments  were  destroyed  by  fire.  And  as 
one  or  both  were  fire-proof  buildings,  and  much  of  the  evidence  of  fraudu 
lent  governmental  dealing  was  commonly  known  in  the  vicinity,  little  doubt 
was  entertained  by  citizens  residing  thereabout,  that  the  fires  were  set  inten 
tionally  on  the  inside,  to  destroy  the  record  of  such  dealing. 


1G6  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

Had  this  principle  been  discerned  and  dem 
onstrated  in  the  first  place,  and  held  up  before 
the  public  gaze  till  the  last,  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  other  issues,  its  disastrous  operation   might, 
perhaps,   to   some    extent,  have    been   averted. 
But  the  fatal  error  of  the  able  men  who  de 
fended  the  Constitution  and  the  interests  of  the 
country,  was,  to  join  issue  with  their  opponents 
upon  various  political  questions,  and  argue  their 
time,  breath,  and  power,  awny  on   these,  while 
the   real   source   of    danger   was  almost  undis- 
cerned  and  unresisted ;  and,  as  for  the  particular 
political  questions  argued,  the   so-called   Demo 
cratic  leaders  would  adopt  or  abandon  any  and 
all  of  them  as  best  suited  their  one  ruling  aim. 
Perhaps    with     the    increasing    resources    and 
necessarily  increasing  expenditures  of  the  gov 
ernment,  an  air  of  lavish  looseness  would  have 
crept  in,  under  an  executive  of  the  most  frugal 
principles.    But  to  anticipate  the  coming  change 
from  poverty  to  affluence,  to  obtain  the    reins 
of  government  at  this  particular  juncture,  and 
so  dispose   of  all  the    patronage   at   command, 
both   legitimate    and   factitious,  as    to    lay    the 
foundations    deep    and  broad  for    perpetuating 
power   in  that  particular   party,  by  systematic 
corruption, — this  was  the  function  of  the  Loco- 
foco,  or  so-called  Democratic,  organization,  and 
displays  its  inimitable  genius. 


XXX. 

SOME  OF    THE   MODES   IN  WHICH    THESE  PRINCIPLES  OPERATED. 

UNDER  the  administration  of  General  Jackson,, 
during  two  successive  terms  of  four  years  each, 
followed  immediately  by  that  of  Van  Buren,  the 
Vice-president  of  his  second  term  and  the  suc 
cessor  of  his  choice,  whose  avowed  ambition  it 
was  to  "  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  his  illustrious 
predecessor,"  the  characteristic  principle  and  pol 
icy  of  the  party  of  which  these  two  men  may 
with  propriety  be  said  to  have  been  the  founders, 
became  confirmed  and  influential  beyond  the 
reach  of  permanent  and  successful  resistance. 
Some  of  the  details  of  its  operation  require  to 
be  examined. 

First :  its  effects  upon  the  political  periodical 
press  were  such  as  to  command  the  devotion  at 
first  of  a  large  and  influential  number,  and  event 
ually,  of  a  large  majority,  of  the  newspapers, 
which  were  almost  the  only  source  of  political 
information  for  the  people,  especially  in  the  older 
of  the  Northern  States.  This  devotion  was 
evinced  by  such  a  universal  and  persistent  sup 
pression  of  whatever  was  damaging,  such  a  rnag- 

167 


168  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

nificent  presentation  of  whatever  was  favorable 
to  the  party,  such  a  warping  and  falsification  of 
current  history,  that  a  discriminating  and  disin 
terested  foreigner,  attached  to  one  of  the  lega 
tions  at  Washington,  on  inquiring  of  one  of 
Van  Buren's  friends  for  the  best  journal  of  their 
party,  felt  himself  compelled  to  reject  every 
thing  that  could  be  brought  forward,  as  unfit  to 
be  read  by  any  fair-minded  man.  It  was  the 
policy  of  the  leaders  of  this  party,  to  keep  it  as 
isolated  and  distinct  as  possible.  Its  voters  were, 
as  far  as  practicable,  inspired  with  feelings  of 
animosity  toward  all  political  opponents,  and 
with  feelings  of  intolerance  for  any  version  of 
facts,  other  than  such  as  emanated  from  their 
own  party  press.  Under  these  circumstances, 
the  operation  of  such  a  party  periodical  litera 
ture  could  not  be  difficult  to  predict.  It  must 
put  an  enormous  despotic  power  into  the  hands 
of  those  who,  by  controlling  the  patronage  of 
the  general  government,  dictated  the  utterances 
of  that  party  press.  It  must  have  educated, 
and  it  did  educate,  the  common  voters  of  that 
party,  unquestioningly  and  unwaveringly,  to  sub 
mit  to  whatever  of  dictation  came  to  them 
through  their  recognized  party  leaders.  These 
leaders  they  were  induced  to  regard  as  the  only 
true  and  trusty  patriots  and  statesmen,  while  all 


POLITICAL   PERVERSIONS.  169 

besides  were  fools  and  knaves.     THEIR  LOVE  OF 

COUNTRY    WAS   THUS  TRANSMUTED  INTO  LOVE   OF   PARTY, 

and  many  of  them  were  brought  sincerely  to 
believe  that  the  sum  of  all  impending  public 
calamities  would  inevitably  follow  the  transfer 
of  the  treasury  keys  to  other  than  the  hands  of 
their  own  party  magnates.  The  editors  of  these 
partisan  journals  were  led  to  expect,  and,  for  the 
most  part,  were  eventually  made  to  experience, 
that  it  was  not  unprofitable  to  serve  their  politi 
cal  masters. 

At  the  South,  and  in  portions  of  the  Western 
States,  where  the  common  people  were  less  edu 
cated,  less  was  done  by  the  press,  and  more  by 
popular  orators.  These  were  indoctrinated,  and 
toned  by  their  chiefs,  and  made  in  their  sev 
eral  localities  to  perform  the  functions  else 
where  assigned  to  a  subsidized  and  unprinci 
pled  press. 

Second :  in  pursuance  of  the  same  general 
party  policy,  and  by  the  application  of  similar 
instrumentalities,  the  foreign-born  population 
were  taken  hold  on,  and  their  political  influence 
secured  to  a  cause  about  which  they  knew  noth 
ing,  but  that  its  adherents  flattered  their  preju 
dices,  pandered  to  their  vices,  talked  more  loudly 
in  favor  of  licentious  freedom,  and  dealt  out  to 
them  more  of  the  dictation  to  which  they  had 

15 


170  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

been  accustomed  in  their  native  monarchies, 
than  anybody  else  presumed  to  do. 

Third :  the  terms  Democracy  and  Democratic 
were  made,  with  some  success,  to  play  a  magnifi 
cent  part  in  covering  up  and  denying  the  real 
attitude  and  aims  of  the  fraternity;  while  the 
general  plan  was  adopted  of  bringing  into  the 
connection  not  only  the  foreign-born,  but  all  Ike 
loiver,  less  intelligent,  more  vicious,  blind,  and  violent 
portions  of  the  tvhole  population,  and  of  arraying  them 
in  hostile  prejudice  against  the  more  principled,  intelli 
gent,  and  discreet,  dubbing  the  latter  as  aristo 
crats. 

The  plan  of  appropriating  the  United  States 
revenues  as  a  reward  for  party  services  operated 
with  such  effect  that  the  party  often  found  itself 
in  such  undisputed  power  as  to  be  able  to  resort 
to  some  obviously  iniquitous  and  injurious  dis 
plays  of  power,  for  the  purpose  of  driving  from 
its  ranks  the  more  intelligent  and  conscientious 
portion  of  the  people,  of  bringing  upon  itself 
such  opposition  as  would  serve  as  a  pretext  for 
inspiring  its  own  blind  adherents  with  increased 
degrees  of  party  violence  and  hate,  and  thus 
widening  the  difference,  and  aggravating  the  hos 
tility  that  prevailed  between  those  who  were 
within  and  those  who  were  without  the  bounda 
ries  of  this  party  organization.  This  made  the 


PARTY    ENGINEERING.  171 

position  of  their  own  office-holding,  office-seeking, 
adherents  more  obviously  distinct  and  desperate, 
and  had  the  effect  of  obtaining  from  them  more 
desperate  and  persevering  exertions  to  perform 
their  assigned  part  of  carrying  the  elections. 

Fourth  :  applying  improved  modes  of  carrying 
important  elections  became  an  important  branch 
of  occupation  for  the  ablest  minds  in  the  frater 
nity.  Executive  abilities  of  the  highest  order 
were  called  into  exercise  in  this  department.  The 
subordination  of  parts  was  rendered  as  complete 
almost  as  in  a  military  organization.  Writing 
and  speaking  abilities  of  the  highest  order  were 
employed  and  paid  for.  A  fixed  per  cent-age 
on  their  salaries  was  regularly  exacted  from 
those  who  enjoyed  the  gift  of  salaried  offices  in 
the  services  of  the  government ;  contracts  for 
government  supplies  and  services  were  so  man 
aged  as  to  yield  immense  sums  for  party  pur 
poses,  and  when  these  sources  of  supply  were 
insufficient,  magnificent  defalcations  were  now 
and  then  resorted  to. 

Such  was  the  state  of  self-control  and  disci 
pline,  throughout  the  party,  that  a  sublime  reti 
cence  sometimes  marked  the  incubation  of  their 
most  desperate  and  decisive  operations. 

The  surveying  of  the  whole  field  of  contest, 
and  the  husbanding  of  resources,  so  as  to  neglect 


172  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

all  those  parts  where  their  own  party  was  so 
strong  as  to  make  success  certain  without  effort, 
and  also  those  parts  where  the  opposition  was 
so  strong  as  to  render  effort  hopeless,  and  centre 
all  available  influences  on  those  few  fulcral 
points  where  defeat  would  be  fatal  to  the  party 
sustaining  it,  is  one  of  the  highest  attainments 
that  had  been  advanced  to,  by  this  colossal  com 
bination  of  perverted  governmental  powers, 
prostituted  to  the  perpetuation  of  power  in  a 
corrupt  political  party  organization. 

It  is  in  violent  struggles  to  carry  such  limited 
localities  which  exert  a  decisive  influence  on 
extensive  elections,  that  fraud,  perjury,  and  cor 
rupt  practices  were  more  frequently  resorted  to. 

At  a  certain  time,  not  far  from  the  close  of 
General  Jackson's  second  official  term,  while  the 
administration  party  and  their  opponents  were 
very  nearly  balanced  in  the  lower  house,  the 
seat  of  a  member  from  Pennsylvania  fell  vacant, 
perhaps  by  death.  An  election  was  held  to  fill 
that  vacancy.  It  was  of  very  great  importance 
to  the  administration  party  to  carry  that  election. 
The  people  of  Pennsylvania,  despite  the  falsifica 
tions  of  the  party  press  and  speakers,  knew 
themselves  to  have  been  damaged  to  the  extent 
of  many  millions  of  dollars  by  recent  acts  of  the 
executive,  in  depriving  their  iron  works  of  the 


A  SPECIMEN.  173 

benefit  of  a  protective  tariff,  and  in  destroying 
the  United  States  Bank,  which  had  always  been 
in  their  chief  city.  Hence  it  was  known  that 
the  vote  in  the  vacant  district  would  be  heavily 
against  the  administration. 

John  B.  Clark,  at  that  time  a  carriage-maker 
of  Gettysburg,  Pa.,  an  active  politician  of  the 
administration  party,  —  who  afterwards  removed 
to  southern  Missouri,  was  there  elected  to  Con 
gress  for  two  or  three  successive  terms,  took  a 
prominent  part  in  defeating  the  election  of  Sher 
man  of  Ohio  to  the  speakership  of  the  second 
Congress  of  Buchanan's  term,  and  was  afterward 
expelled  from  the  House  for  being  in  arms 
against  the  government  at  the  battle  of  Boon- 
ville,  —  took  an  active  part  in  carrying  the  elec 
tion  to  fill  the  above-named  vacancy  in  Pa.,  of 
which,  some  years  afterwards,  he  gave  the  pres 
ent  writer  the  following  account :  "  We  imported 
voters  from  Baltimore,  New  York,  and  Quebec  ; 
some  of  them  we  boarded  on  expense  for  weeks, 
or  perhaps  months,  before  the  election.  Some 
of  the  smartest  of  them  voted  four  times  in  one 
day,  and  perjured  themselves  every  time,  and 
we  paid  them  for  it."  Clark  also  went  on  to 
describe  the  process  by  which  the  State  elections 
were  systematically  controlled  by  party  leaders 
of  the  same  dye,  and  the  expenses  of  the  opera- 


is* 


174  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

tion  defrayed  from  the  profits  of  a  preconcerted' 
plan  of  colluding  to  plunder  the  public  treasury. 

A  volume  might  be  filled  with  authentic 
accounts  of  similar  transactions,  (perhaps  instead 
of  a  volume  I  should  have  said  a  library,)  but 
this  must  suffice  as  a  specimen.* 

While  such  transactions  were  being  carried 
on,  the  administration  press  was  hurling  such  a 
storm  of  abuse  and  vilification  on  their  oppo 
nents  as  to  lead  disinterested  persons  to  sup 
pose  that  whatever  of  the  above  and  like  his 
toric  truth  was  uttered  by  those  opponents  was 
so  uttered  under  the  excitement  of  irritated 
feeling,  and  to  repel  assault. 

*  See  Appendix  E. 


XXXI. 

RESULTS   OF    THE    OPERATION    OF     THE    ABOVE-NAMED    PRIN 
CIPLES. 

THE  common  masses  of  a  political  party,  thus 
combined  and  dealt  with,  must  of  necessity  be 
rapidly  preparing  to  become  the  instrument  of 
anything  its  leaders  see  fit  to  employ  it  about; 
whether  the  enterprise  be  the  consummation  of 
some  gigantic  treason  against  the  government, 
or  whether  it  be  the  more  quiet  and  protracted 
process  of  controlling  the  elections  and  appro 
priating  the  public  revenues  for  the  benefit  of 
their  party  leaders.  But  the  effects  which  such 
a  party  organization,  so  combined  and  controll 
ed,  must  produce,  beyond  the  boundaries  of  its 
own  enclosure,  deserve  examination. 

That  portion  of  the  community  who  least 
appreciate  the  sacredness  or  worth  of  the  elec 
tive  franchise,  together  with  those  of  more  intel 
ligence  who  are  least  disposed  to  see  that  fran 
chise  guarded  and  preserved,  constitute  the  com 
bination,  which,  from  its  preeminent  strength 
and  efficiency,  as  well  as  from  its  being  the  first 


176  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF   SECESSION. 

of  its  kind,  deserves  to  be  designated  the  party. 
Those  who  are  outside  the  boundaries  of  this 
party  organization  suddenly  find  themselves  ex 
cluded  from  almost  all  voice  and  participation  in 
the  affairs  of  government.  The  limits  which 
patriotism,  self-respect,  common  justice,  and  fair 
dealing  have  hitherto  set  to  party  violence  and 
usurpation  have  been  spurned  and  disregarded 
by  their  opponents.  By  means  before  unheard- 
of  and  unsuspected,  the  casual  majority  of  the 

hour  HAVE  CHANGED  THEIR  TRANSIENT  ASCENDENCY 
INTO  A  PERMANENT  USURPATION  OF  THE  REINS  OF 

GOVERNMENT;  and  those  who  are  left  outside  of 
the  usurping  party  have  nothing  left  for  them 
to  do  but  to  pay  taxes.  Their  only  alternative 
is,  to  organize  and  attempt  to  operate  a  rival 
party.  This  they  attempt  to  do. 

But  they  are  not  equal  to  their  teachers  at 
organizing.  They  have  no  such  pliant  mass  to 
act  on,  no  taste  or  disposition  to  act  the  tyrant 
and  the  demagogue  over  it  if  they  had.  Dec 
ades  of  peace  and  affluence  have  banished  fear 
and  nursed  presumption  in  the  popular  mind 
respecting  national  security  ;  and  patriotism  has 
almost  died  out  for  lack  of  exercise.  The  pub 
lic  press  and  public  speakers  have  been  so  far 
suborned  that  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  make 
any  extensive  impression  on  the  public  mind 


DISCOURAGEMENTS   OF  PATRIOTISM.  177 

respecting  the  existing  state  of  things  or  the 
future  prospect.  No  argument  that  can  be 
educed  can  counteract  among  the  masses  the 
influence  of  interested  leaders,  bent  on  the  at 
tainment  of  office  by  the  exercise  of  party  zeal- 
Falsehood  and  vituperation  are  used  by  the 
dominant  party  to  the  wildest  extent,  and  with 
the  effect  to  create  an  impression  of  more  or 
less  general  extent  that  their  opponents  lie  as  badly 
as  they  do  themselves,  and  are  as  dishonest  and  cor 
rupt.  This  general  impression  that  all  political 
men  are  corrupt,  and  that  all  their  utterances, 
being  designed  for  party  ends,  are  as  likely  to 
be  false  as  true,  seems  to  cut  off  the  last  chan 
nel  through  which  any  effort  can  be  directed  to 
retrieve  the  general  demoralization  and  despotiz- 
ing  of  the  popular  masses.  The  intelligent  and 
patriotic  seem  doomed  to  sit  down  helpless,  and 
see  the  dreadful  work  go  on,  till  the  madness  be 
comes  so  excessive  as  to  produce  a  reaction  and 
correct  itself.  Twice  did  the  evil  run  to  this  ex 
tent,  and  twice  did  this  corrective  reaction  take 
place,  and  the  dominant  party  in  1840  and  in 
1848  simply  through  the  excess  of  its  obviously 
corrupt  maladministration  was  defeated  in  its  at 
tempts  to  elect  its  party  candidate  to  the  presi 
dency.  And  twice  did  a  very  singular  interposi 
tion  of  divine  Providence,  or  some  assassinating 


178  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

instrument  of  human  designing,  cut  suddenly 
short  the  lives  of  the  men  who  were  elected  to 
the  chief  magistracy  contrary  to  the  wish  and 
purpose  of  the  leaders  of  the  otherwise  invaria 
bly  successful  party.  Thus  leaving  that  party  a 
practically  unbroken  series  of  successes  from  the 
inaugurating  of  General  Jackson,  in  1828,  to 
I860,  when  its  leaders,  assembled  in  convention 
at  Charleston  for  traitorous  purposes,  elected  to 
defeat  themselves;  and,  as  a  consequence,  in  the 
following  year  Abraham  Lincoln  was  called  on 
to  do  the  best  he  could  in  an  effort  to  gather  up 
and  reunite  the  palsied  and  putrescent  frag 
ments  of  a  severed  Union. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  portion  of  the  people 
who  had  been  left  out  in  the  formation  and  con 
tinuance  of  the  dominant  party,  seeing  the 
worse  than  uselessness  of  attempting  to  oper 
ate  a  rival  party  organization,  abandoned  the  ef 
fort.  The  more  able  and  discriminating  of  them 
retired  from  concern  in  public  affairs.  The 
more  corruptible  of  them  at  last  joined  the 
dominant  party,  or,  in  combination  with  such  as 
occasionally  fell  off  from  that  party  organiza 
tion,  on  principles  more  or  less  allied  to  those 
of  the  old  parent,  formed  the  succession  of  nas 
cent,  imperfect,  and  shortlived  party  organisms 
which  have  successively  borne  the  honor  of  be- 


NASCENT    PARTY   ORGANISMS. 


179 


ing  the  opposition,  since  the  Whigs  disbanded, 
one  of  which  caught  the  crumbling  government 
and  happened  to  have  the  national  administra 
tion  fall  into  its  hands  when,  at  the  close  of 
Buchanan's  term,  the  party  that  elected  him, 
true  to  its  principles,  mature  in  its  tendencies, 
with  traitorous  intent,  achieved  its  suicide. 


i;  v 


OF 

CALIFORNIA 


XXXII. 

THE  PROSTRA1ION  RESULTING  TO  A  PATRIOTIC  MINORITY, 
FROM  THE  USURPATION  OF  A  DESPOTIC  FEW,  CONTROL 
LING  A  MAJORITY. 

IN  case  of  hopeless  and  unendurable  abuse  of 
power,  under  a  monarchical  government,  armed 
rebellion  affords  a  natural,  and  at  least  tempora 
rily  successful,  method  of  redress.  As  long  as 
the  monarchical  form  of  government  is  contin 
ued,  it  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  a  revolution  for 
a  people  inured  to  being  dictated  to,  to  change 
one  master  for  another.  But  in  a  democracy, 
revolution,  when  once  begun,  tends  strongly  to 
become  chronic.  Besides  this,  when  the  major 
ity  of  the  voters  can  be  irredeemably  cajoled  by 
a  succession  of  graceless  villains,  whose  vocation 
it  is  to  manage  voters  for  their  own  and  their 
party's  benefit,  the  last  of  human  remedies  ap 
pears  to  have  been  exhausted.  With  such  a 
cajoled  or  cajolable  majority,  a  revolution  —  un 
less  it  be  a  revolution  back  to  despotism  —  can 
accomplish  nothing,  unless  it  be,  if  possible,  a 
nearer  approach  to  anarchy,  or  a  chronic  condi 
tion  of  revolt  and  intestine  war. 

180 


SHRINKING   FROM   POLITICAL   DUTY.  181 

Under  this  condition  of  affairs,  the  prevalent 
practical  course  with  us  has  been,  for  men  of 
patriotism  and  ability  to  abandon  politics  and  all 
practical  concern  in  governmental  matters,  and 
to  devote  themselves  to  private  business  and 
personal  and  family  aggrandizement,  in  other 
lines  of  action ;  consoling  themselves  with  the 
reflection  that  the  people  rule,  and  have  every 
thing  their  own  way. 

It  may  seem  hard  to  say  that  more  than  this 
is  required  of  a  democratic  member  of  a  demo 
cratic  community.  Yet  the  events  of  the  cur 
rent  crisis  compel  us  to  admit,  and  to  act  on  the 
admission,  that  much  more  is  required ;  even 
the  temporary  resigning  of  almost  every  per 
sonal  right,  and  the  submitting  of  ourselves  to 
military  discipline,  with  the  certainty  of  experi 
encing  very  great  hardships,  privations,  and  suf 
ferings,  with  the  imminent  risk  of  losing  health, 
limb,  and  life  itself.  What  is  the  conclusion? 
This,  namely,  if  the  privilege  of  existence  as  a 
democratic  member  of  a  democratic  community 
is  liable  to  cost  all  this,  in  a  crisis  that  imperils 
the  nation's  life,  it  is  reasonable,  and  no  more 
than  reasonable,  that,  to  avert  the  occurrence  of 
such  a  crisis,  something  more  should  be  done 
than  merely  to  submit  to  the  majority,  and  then, 
besides  this  passive  duty,  turn  one's  entire  atten* 


182  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

tion,  concern,  and  effort  to  the  work  of  personal 
and  family  aggrandizement.  The  efforts  of  de 
signing  demagogues  should  be  counteracted  ivith  a 
liberal  portion  of  the  persistency,  the  zeal,  the  per 
sonal  hazard  and  the  cost,  ivith  which,  ivhen  the  crisis 
arrives,  we  are  obliged  to  contend  for  national  exist 
ence  on  the  tented  field,  and  in  the  battle's  strife. 
The  inadequacy  of  public  legislation,  the  mal 
administration  of  public  officers,  the  deliberate 
frauds  and  falsehoods  of  partisan  politicians, 
combinations  to  defeat  the  ends  of  justice  and 
the  achieving  of  the  public  weal,  should  be  un 
covered  and  explained  by  men  who  are  known 
to  have  higher  ends  in  view  than  to  fatten  at 
the  public  crib. 

It  were  better  that  the  code  duello,  with  all 
its  evils,  should  prevail  than  that  millions  of 
voters  iri  our  democratic  government  should  be 
fed  by  the  half  century  together  on  nothing  but 
the  political  fiction  and  falsehood  which  design 
ing  knaves,  who  are  incapable  of  any  higher 
aim  than  to  plunder  the  public  treasury  for  per 
sonal  and  party  benefit,  see  fit  to  deal  out  to 
them,  till  another  war  like  the  present,  with  the 
slaughter  of  its  tens  of  thousands  shall  result. 

Perhaps  no  other  operating  cause,  but  the 
throes  of  expiring  despotism,  could  have  pro 
duced  such  a  colossal  and  infuriate  combination 


PENALTY  OF  NEGLECTED  DUTY.        183 

as  is  now  struggling  to  overthrow  democracy  in 
this  country.  But  had  those  on  ivhom  it  devolved 
to  sustain  democracy  in  this  country  for  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century ',  been  more  persistent  and  in 
quiring,  and  less  presuming,  puerile,  and  supine,  the 
disaster  which  the  country  is  now  suffering  could  never 
have  occurred.  It  may  be  true  that  no  motive 
cause  but  the  throes  of  expiring  despotism  could 
have  induced  the  present  assault  on  the  life  of 
our  nation ;  but  it  is  also  true  that  without 
the  powerful  collateral  aid  of  a  despotic  and 
traitorous  party  of  Northern  citizens  to  assist 
them,  the  Southern  despots  who  are  now  threat 
ening  our  capitol  and  invading  the  Free  States 
with  an  army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men,  could 
scarcely  have  survived  the  first  year  of  their 
onslaught. 

One  of  the  most  extensively  disastrous  ef 
fects  produced  outside  of  its  own  limits,  by  the 
party  on  whose  chronicle  we  are  dwelling,  was 
the  obliterating  of  the  public  conscience  and 
the  thorough  spread  of  corrupt  principles  and 
practices  in  respect  to  everything  political;  so 
that  material  impressed  with  political  honesty 
can  hardly  be  found,  wherewith  to  constitute  a 
ruling  majority,  even  when  the  despotized  fra 
ternity  which  has  ruled  the  country  for  the  past 
thirty  years  shall  have  been  displaced. 


184  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF   SECESSION. 

How  far  the  presumptuous  supineness  and  pue 
rility  of  our  Northern  statesmen  are  legitimate 
results  of  the  rich  and  hitherto  almost  costless 
immunities  conferred  by  our  system  of  free  gov 
ernment,  and  to  what  extent  they  are  justly  at 
tributable  to  the  governmentless  mythologies 
which  obtain  among  us  so  extensively  in  the 
religious  world,  are  questions  that  may  be  sug 
gested  here,  but  which  it  lies  not  within  the 
assigned  limits  of  these  pages  to  discuss. 

When  it  comes  to  be  the  unmistakable  testi 
mony  of  current  history,  that  there  is  not  force 
enough  in  our  national  administration  to  punish 
the  most  flagrant  malfeasance  in  office,  or  the 
most  gigantic  frauds,  it  is  the  opinion  of  the 
present  writer  that  a  little  judicious  blood-let 
ting,  after  the  manner  of  William  Tell,  would  be 
for  the  public  health.  And  that  when  this  or 
other  remedial  action  is  deferred  to  the  all-ab 
sorbing  vocation  of  personal  and  family  aggran 
dizement,  there  exists  a  festering  plethora  which 
betokens  disastrous  sickness  of  the  civil  system. 
It  is  a  sign  of  unhealthiness  in  the  system,  when 
tfie  powerlessness  of  public  justice  can  be  calcu 
lated  on  only  by  the  baldest  villains.  "  It  is  " 
sometimes  u  expedient  that  one  man  should  die 
for  the  people,  that  the  whole  nation  perish 
not" 


XXXIII. 

HOW     THE    JACKSON-BUCHANAN    PARTY    BECAME     IDENTIFIED 
WITH    SECESSION. 

ANDREW  JACKSON  was  not  a  Secessionist ;  Martin 
Van  Buren  was  not  a  Secessionist.  How,  then, 
came  it  to  pass  that  the  party,  of  which  these 
men  were  the  founders  and  fashioners,  should 
become  a  powerful  and  efficient  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  coadjutors 
for  destroying  the  United  States  government? 

Jackson,  Van  Buren,  their  compeers  and  suc 
cessors  of  the  same  political  school,  down  to 
James  Buchanan,  did  one  thing ;  namely,  they 
combined,  kept  up,  and  operated,  a  political  party 
on  the  following  principles:  among  the  mem 
bership,  unqualified  devotion  to  the  party  and 
unquestioning  obedience  to  its  leaders,  with  un 
scrupulous  and  vindictive  hostility  to  every  one 
who  opposed  them ;  among  the  leaders,  the 
usurpation  of  the  government,  for  the  sake  of 
its  honors  and  emoluments,  to  be  appropriated, 
first,  to  perpetuate  the  usurpation,  and,  second, 
to  aggrandize  themselves  individually. 

Patriotism  and  justice,  veracity  and  self-respect, 

16*  186 


186  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

in  short,  every  sentiment  more  elevated  or  sa 
cred  than  the  honor  proverbial  among  thieves, 
was  effectually  replaced  by  a  blind,  unscrupulous 
devotion  to  performing  the  dictates  of  party 
leaders.  Instead  of  fearing  for  the  destruction 
of  their  country,  and  instead  of  being  purposed, 
at  all  costs,  to  avert  any  detriment  or  disaster 
that  might  threaten  the  precious  civil  institu 
tions  which  their  fathers  bequeathed,  and  to 
which  they  owed  their  unparalleled  prosperity, 
the  damnable  political  demagogues  who  assem 
bled  at  the  national  capitol,  under  guise  of  exec 
utive  administration  and  legislature,  had  brought 
the  popular  masses  of  their  party  to  a  state  of 
mind  in  which  they  feared  nothing  but  the  defeat 
of  their  party  candidate,  no  matter  who  he 
might  be,  and  were  perfectly  purposed  at  every 
cost  to  defend  nothing  but  the  succession  of  mis 
creants,  who  should  be  designated  in  secret  party 
conclave  to  succeed  each  other,  in  wielding  the 
usurped  governmental  powers  for  party  purposes, 
and  in  disposing  of  the  public  treasure  for  per 
sonal  aggrandizement,  —  a  state  of  mind  in  which 
they  could  see  nothing  offensive  but  the  real  or 
imaginary  faults  of  political  men  who  belonged 
not  to  their  party,  nothing  to  be  feared  but  the 
exposure,  breaking  up,  and  reform  of  that  deep 
and  dark  and  long-continued  series  of  atrocities, 


FRUITS  OF  SO-CALLED  DEMOCRACY.  187 

into  supporting  and  defending  which  themselves 
had  been  betrayed.  To  avert  these  feared  re 
sults,  no  sacrifice  was  too  costly,  no  application 
too  assiduous. 

James  Buchanan  and  Isaac  Toucey,  two  despi 
cable  lickspittles  of  the  perjured  crew  who  ruled 
over  them,  and  used  them  and  their  official 
power  to  initiate  the  present  dreadfully  disastrous 
War,  are  but  mature  and  ripe  specimens  of  what 
the  principles  and  practices  of  their  long  domi 
nant  party  have  tended,  more  or  less  effectually, 
to  make  of  every  Northern  man,  who,  for  the  last 
thirty  years,  has  consented  to  be  counted  in  its 
numbers. 

The  results,  to  the  Union,  of  the  official  con 
duct  of  James  Buchanan  and  Isaac  Toucey, — 
the  deliberate  giving  up  of  the  army  and  navy, 
the  forts  and  arsenals  of  the  country,  into  the 
hands  of  conspirators  leagued  to  destroy  the 
government,  —  are  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
the  results  which  the  principles  and  practices  of 
their  party  have  directly,  and  more  or  less  effec 
tually,  tended  to  produce,  ever  since  that  party 
first  received  its  characteristic  impress  from  the 
consecutive  administrations  of  Andrew  Jackson 
and  Martin  Van  Buren.  The  truth  of  this  re 
mark  is  amply  attested  by  the  pertinacity  with 
which  —  notwithstanding  the  defection  of  such 


188  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

men  as  Butler,  and  Corcoran,  Busteed,  D.  Dick 
inson,  Shepley  of  Maine,  McClernand  of4iiiTituAi£ 
and  hundreds  more  of  the  ablest  and  most  hon 
est  that  ever  were  caught  in  the  meshes  of  a 
colossal,  corrupt,  and  traitorous  party  organiza 
tion  —  the  major  part  of  the  masses  of  that 
party,  up  to  the  fall  elections  of  1863,  under 
the  lead  of  C.  L.  Yallandigham,  Fernando  Wood, 
and  Horatio  Seymour,  still  adhere  to  the  cause 
of  their  old  Southern  leaders.* 

The  Southern  oligarchy  under  Jefferson  Davis 
conspired  to  overthrow  the  government,  that 
they  might  obtain  a  large  fragment  from  its 
ruins  whereon  to  erect  an  empire  sacred  to  des 
potism  in  general  and  to  African  slavery  in  par 
ticular,  from  whence  to  fulminate  destruction  on 
all  antagonists,  to  the  boundaries  of  the  conti 
nent,  and  to  the  end  of  time. 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  no  very  positive 
contrariety  between  the  aims  of  the  two  frater 
nities.  Up  to  the  time  at  which  the  Southern 
conspiracy  matured  into  armed  treason,  nothing 
was  necessary  but  for  the  conspiring  party  to 
conceal  their  ulterior  design,  and  the  two  frater 
nities  were  one  in  spirit  and  in  action,  straining 
every  nerve  to  beat  down  their  common  oppo 
nents.  Up  to  this  point,  the  only  difference  be- 

*  See  Appendix  F. 


CONFLUENCE   OF   COGNATE   PARTIES.  189 

tween  the  two  affiliated  parties  was,  that  the 
Southern  wing  would  and  the  Northern  wing 
would  not  prosecute  their  common  vocation  to 
the  point  of  armed  rebellion. 

But  the  same  qualities  which  had  given  South 
ern  men  a  ruling  ascendency  in  the  government 
of  the  nation  had,  nearly  or  quite  from  its  ori 
gin,  given  them  a  ruling  ascendency  in  the  Jack 
son-Buchanan  party.  This  ascendency  they  had 
used  to  impart  to  their  subalterns  and  partisans, 
particularly  at  the  North,  a  party  spirit  of  the 
utmost  virulence,  and  habits  of  party  action  to 
the  last  degree  violative  of  the  dictates  of  honor, 
honesty,  justice,  and  patriotism.  So  that,  up  to 
the  time  at  which  these  Southern  leaders  of  the 
party  threw  off  all  disguise  and  assumed  the 
attitude  of  armed  rebellion,  their  Northern  coad 
jutors,  President  Buchanan  among  the  foremost 
of  them,  were  ready  and  earnest  to  engage  in 
anything,  no  matter  how  dishonorable,  unjust, 
mendacious,  or  treasonable,  so  long  as  it  did  not 
expose  their  own  necks  to  the  halter,  and  they 
could  be  shown  some  plausible  reason  to  believe 
that  the  proposed  measure  would  result  to  the 
benefit  of  their  political  party.  Hence  the  dis 
persion  of  the  United  States  army  and  navy, 
the  rifling  of  the  arsenals  and  treasury,  and 
the  almost  utterly  defenceless  exposure  of  the 


190  NATURAL   HISTORY   OP  SECESSION. 

Southern  forts,  mint,  and  shipyards,  preparatory 
to  opening  the  present  hostilities,  which  prepa 
ration  James  Buchanan  assisted  in  accomplish 
ing,  and  his  Northern  adherents  assented  to, 
for  the  benefit  of  their  political  party,  and  in 
obedience  to  their  political  leaders. 

At  the  time  of  the  attempted  execution  of 
the  nullification  project,  this  school  of  treason, 
of  which  the  present  seceding  body  is  the  out 
growth,  was  Qpnfmed  to  South  Carolina.  The 
issue  on  which  this  project  worked  was  the  tariff. 
The  effort  was  to  unite  the  South  in  resistance 
to  the  government  on  the  ground,  as  was  pre 
tended,  that  the  general  government,  under  the 
influence  of  Northern  men,  would  tax  Southern 
imports  for  the  sake  of  protecting  Northern 
manufactories. 

Upon  the  suppression  of  this  conspiracy,  by 
the  prompt  energy  of  President  Jackson,  it  is 
matter  of  history  that  the  defeated  leaders  of 
that  scheme  took  counsel,  and  determined  to 
change  the  issue  from  the  tariff  to  the  slavery 
question,  assured  that  the  whole  South  could  be 
united  on  this  latter  issue,  and  on  nothing  else. 
The  doctrine  of  State  sovereignty,  or  the  superi 
ority  of  State  authority  over  the  authority  of  the 
general  government,  was  from  this  time  propa 
gated  with  the  utmost  industry,  especially  at  the 


THE   ISSUE   RENDERED   SECTIONAL.  191 

South,  for  the  poisoning  of  the  popular  mind, 
and  to  prepare  a  foundation  upon  which,  at  the 
proper  time,  the  Secession  edifice  could  be  reared. 
From  this  time,  also,  no  doubt,  it  was  that  the 
clique  of  traitors  who  remodelled  their  plans  after 
the  failure  of  their  South  Carolina  nullification, 
saw  the  important  benefit  which  would  result  to 
them  by  having  a  general  political  party  under 
their  control,  selected  the  Jackson-Buchanan 
party  as  best  suited  to  answer  their  ends,  gath 
ered  themselves  into  it  as  honest  bona  fide  mem 
bers,  took  it  under  their  control,  and  began  to 
manage  it  for  the  accomplishment  of  their  own 
purposes. 

When,  after  the  death  of  President  Taylor, 
and  the  defeat  of  the  Whigs  in  attempting  to 
elect  his  immediate  successor,  the  Whig  party 
gave  up  its  organization  and  became  practically 
extinct,  these  Southern  leaders  of  the  Jackson- 
Buchanan  party,  by  preventing  either  the  re-for 
mation  of  the  Whig  or  the  successful  organization 
of  any  other  opposition  party  in  the  Southern 
States,  achieved  this  important  result ;  namely, 
that  the  opposition  which  was  raised  against  them, 
if  it  ever  assumed  a  party  form  and  organization, 
must  of  necessity  be  a  sectional  party,  confined 
to  the  Northern  States.  This  result  they  found 
themselves  able  to  accomplish  by  virtue  of  the 


192  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

despotic  control  they  already  possessed  over  the 
non-slave-holding  population  of  the  Southern 
States. 

So  remote  were  the  Northern  people  from  any 
thing  like  ostensible  monarchy,  that  the  dictation 
of  this  clique  of  despots  came  to  them  like  the 
u  Vox  populi,  vox  Dei,"  by  which  the  Democrat  is 
always  governed.  And  when  they  cried  against 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  his  supporters,  "  Black 
Republican,"  "  Abolitionist,"  the  latter  seemed  to 
shrink  back  and  shudder,  as  if  they  had  been 
rebuked  by  a  voice  from  heaven.  Whereas,  the 
seven  and  three-fourths  millions  of  non-slave- 
holding  whites  in  the  South  had  scarcely  more 
to  do  with  originating  or  reiterating  this  outcry, 
or  with  inducing  the  sectionalized  state  of  the 
anti-despotic  party,  than  had  the  black  slaves 
that  served  under  the  same  masters. 


XXXIV. 

RECAPITULATION  OF  THE  PART  PERFORMED  BY  THE  JACK 
SON-BUCHANAN  PARTY  IN  BRINGING  ABOUT  THE  PRESENT 
WAR. 

ON  this  branch  of  our  general  subject  we  re 
sume  as  follows :  —  The  disposition  and  power 
for  despotic  usurpation  was  produced  and  nour 
ished  into  strength  in  this  Republic,  by  having 
an  abject  mass  of  Africans  consigned  to  perpet 
ual  bondage  by  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the 
country  as  commonly  interpreted. 

This  disposition  and  power  for  despotic  usur 
pation  first  manifested  itself  in  the  form  of 
overt  treason,  in  South  Carolina,  during  the  ad 
ministration  of  President  Jackson,  in  an  attempt 
to  nullify  the  laws  of  Congress  by  authority  of 
the  individual  State.  This  attempted  treason 
against  his  government  was  promptly  suppressed 
by  Jackson;  who  also  founded  a  political  party, 
which,  without  literally  infracting  the  Constitu 
tion,  usurped,  and,  with  the  exception  of  two 
brief  and  partial  interruptions,  for  thirty  years, 
held  the  United  States  government  for  its  own 
use  and  behoof;  and  this  it  succeeded  in  accom- 

17  193 


194  NATURAL  HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

plishing  by  virtue  of  distributing  the  govern 
ment  revenues  as  plunder  to  be  divided  out  in 
reward  for  party  services. 

This  usurping  party,  though  distributed 
through  the  Northern  as  well  as  through  the 
Southern  States,  like  the  general  government, 
was  under  the  practical  and  permanent  control 
of  leading  Southerners.  At  least  they  soon 
placed  themselves  in  such  control. 

As  the  natural  tendencies  to  despotic  usur 
pation  developed  in  these  leading  Southerners, 
and  as  the  necessities  of  their  situation  pressed 
them  more  and  more,  they  formed  the  intelli 
gent  design  to  break  up  the  government,  and 
on  a  portion  of  its  ruins  found  an  empire  for 
themselves,  free  from  the  embarrassing  presence 
of  a  democratic  people  and  democratic  institu 
tions.  Next  to  this  in  point  of  time  came  the 
purpose  of  using  the  party  which  Jackson 
founded,  to  demoralize  and  divide  the  North  ; 
at  the  same  time  extinguishing  all  organized  op 
position  in  the  Southern  States.  They  did 
much  to  conceal  their  real  aim,  by  successfully 
monopolizing  to  themselves  and  to  their  adher 
ents  the  political  appellatives  "Democrats"  and 
"  Democracy."  They  despotized  and  depraved 
their  own  party  in  the  North,  by  accustoming 
them  to  march  under  training  file-leaders,  as 


THE  ADVENT   OF  TREASON.  195 

near  upon  the  verge  of  treason  as  they  could 
go  and  not  precipitate  war/  They  demoralized 
that  portion  of  the  Northern  people  whom  they 
could  not  control,  by  rendering  political  integ 
rity  useless,  and  perfidious  corruption  practi 
cally  unobjectionable. 

When  they  had  matured  their  arrangements 
and  completed  preliminary  operations  in  these 
several  directions,  having  also  disposed  of  the 
treasury,  army,  navy,  arms,  and  military  stores 
of  government  to  their  satisfaction,  they  then 
deliberately  broke  up  their  own  political  party, 
thereby  throwing  the  responsibilities  of  the  dis 
mantled  government  into  the  green  hands  of  an 
ill-connected  sectional  minority,  opened  their 
overwhelming  batteries  on  Fort  Sumter,  and 
advanced  their  legions  by  rail  to  beleaguer 
Washington. 

The  elements  of  success  had  hardly  been  mis 
calculated  on  the  part  of  the  traitors.  Their 
sway  over  the  Southern  masses  was  absolute 
and  unconditional,  while  the  whole  North  did 
not  contain  a  man  in  whom  any  considerable 
portion  of  the  people  felt  that  they  could  con 
fide  the  conduct  of  public  affairs  in  the  crisis 
that  was  forced  on  them ;  there  was  scarcely 
known  to  be  a  military  officer  who  could  credi 
tably  handle  an  army  of  ten  thousand  men; 


196  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

there  was  a  natural  certainty  that  the  best  of 
such  officers  as  should  be  called  out  by  the 
emergency  would  be  sacrificed  to  the  jealousy 
of  rival  aspirants ;  the  habits  and  character  of 
the  Northern  people  were  as  remote  as  possi 
ble  from  warlike  pursuits ;  the  interruption  of 
their  gainful  industry  would  double  to  them  the 
calamities  of  every  campaign,  irrespective  of 
victory  or  defeat ;  it  would  be  a  slow  and  diffi 
cult  process  to  inspire  such  a  people  with  any 
thing  like  martial  spirit  or  enthusiasm ;  the 
conspirators  had  a  political  party  more  or  less 
reliably  attached  to  them  interspersed  through 
out  the  North,  with  powerful  influence  to  men 
ace  the  administration  and  counteract  its  efforts, 
and  ready  to  act  as  spies  on  every  square  mile 
of  Northern  territory,  in  every  regiment  of  sol 
diers,  in  many  important  positions  of  civil  and 
military  trust,  in  either  house  of  Congress,  in 
every  executive  department,  and  not  improba 
bly,  in  the  very  bed-chamber  of  the  Chief  Mag 
istrate  ;  *  the  noted  honesty  and  mildness  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  would  give  the  conspirators  exten 
sive  immunity  in  traitorous  crime  and  violence, 
and  the  powerful  prestige  that  pertains  to  a 
bold,  decided,  severe,  unrelenting  course  of  ac- 

*  No  suspicion  is  here  intended  to  be  thrown  on  any  member  of  Presi 
dent  Lincoln's  family. 


SLIGHT  MISCALCULATION.  197 

tion ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  the  inexperience 
of  those  into  whose  hands  the  government  must 
be  intrusted  would  be  a  source  of  certain  and 
extensive  feebleness.  The  only  points  in  which 
the  conspirators  appear  to  have  miscalculated, 
were  two  :  the  unreliability  of  their  own  cor 
rupted  partisans  in  the  North,  and  the  exhaust- 
lessness  of  the  recuperative  energies  of  a  truly 
democratic  people. 

In  respect  to  the  former  of  these  two  points, 
the  work  of  converting  back  the  masses  of  a 
great  political  party  from  democracy  to  despot 
ism  must  have  been  very  imperfectly  perform 
ed,  being  undertaken  and  carried  on  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  democratic  community  on 
earth.  There  were  multitudes  of  men  in  the 
ranks  of  that  party  who  would  tread  the  verge 
of  treason  to  secure  a  party  victory,  while  un 
der  the  influence  of  heated  party  feeling,  and 
excited  by  the  presence  of  active  leaders  inces 
santly  laboring  to  deceive  them,  who  would  still 
refuse  to  make  the  damning  plunge  across  that 
boundary,  merely  to  save  the  necks  of  their  ab 
sent  masters.  The  very  injury  that  had  been 
done  to  their  better  principles  might  naturally 
enough  be  expected  at  length  to  react  against 
the  villains  by  whom  they  had  been  instructed. 

Kespecting  the  recovering  power  of  a  true 

IT* 


198  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

democracy,  the  world  has  had  but  little  experi 
ence,  and  the  truth  in  this  regard  would  of  ne 
cessity  be  slow  to  reach  the  attention  or  secure 
the  belief  of  a  crew  of  half  barbarous  despots 
battling  for  the  extinction  of  all  democracy, 
until  such  time  as  they  shall  be  privileged  to 
read  that  important  truth  evinced  in  the  fact  of 
their  own  helpless  overthrow. 


XXXV. 

THE   ABOLITIONISTS. 

No  history  of  the  causes  that  contributed  to 
bring  about  the  existing  calamitous  intestine 
war  will  be  complete,  which  does  not  give  a 
somewhat  prominent  consideration  to  the  char 
acter  and  influence  of  the  Abolitionists,  techni 
cally  so  called.  By  this  term  I  would  be  under 
stood  to  describe  a  sect  of  political  religionists 
who  have  made  themselves  conspicuous  in  the 
Northern  States  for  the  last  thirty  years,  as  the 
special  advocates  and  champions  of  freedom  and 
morality  in  their  bearings  on  slavery  in  the 
Southern  States. 

The  leaders  of  this  sect,  and  of  necessity  its 
members  to  a  great  extent,  are  distinguished  for 
a  virulent  rejection  of  the  great  truths  of  re 
vealed  religion,  while  yet  they  are  the  exceed 
ingly  zealous  advocates  of  an  indefinite  and 
variable  code  of  deistical  morals,  framed  in  part 
according  to  suggestions  drawn  from  the  same 
sacred  Scriptures  whose  supreme  authority  they 
vehemently  despise.  The  object  of  their  deisti 
cal  worship  is  usually  represented  by  themselves 

199 


200  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF   SECESSION. 

as  shorn  of  every  lineament  of  vindictive  justice, 
and  endowed  with  imperturbable,  illimitable,  in 
discriminate  benevolence  toward  the  members 
of  the  human  family,  irrespective  of  moral  char 
acter,  acts  or  aims. 

Of  course,  in  a  religion  like  this,  the  holding 
of  one's  fellow-man  in  involuntary  servitude 
would  be  the  sin  of  sins.  It  would  partake  al 
most  of  the  heinousness  of  beef-eating  under  the 
mythology  of  ancient  Egypt.  And  the  obvious 
infirmity  of  the  deity  of  this  modern  sect  would 
remain  to  be  made  up  to  a  great  extent  by  the 
zeal  and  activity  of  his  worshippers. 

We  have  elsewhere  observed  that  the  highly 
religious  character  of  the  early  settlers  of  New 
England  appears  still  in  form  to  characterize 
their  descendants,  even  when  the  latter  have 
abandoned  entirely  the  foundations  on  which 
their  fathers  reared  the  structure  of  their  relig 
ious  faith  and  practice.  Among  these,  the  Abo 
litionists  hold  a  prominent  place. 

We  have  also  elsewhere  remarked,  that  after 
the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and 
the  freeing  of  the  slaves  in  the  Northern  States, 
while,  under  the  influence  of  the  rising  cotton 
trade,  political  sentiment  in  the  South  was  verg 
ing  back  upon  despotism,  the  principles  and 
practices  of  free  government,  "for  better  for 


LIBERTY  TO  EXCESS.  201 

worse/'  were  having  unobstructed  course,  and 
were  working  out  their  natural  tendencies  with 
out  impediment  among  the  people  of  the  North 
ern  States. 

Probably  it  never  occurred  to  the  people  of 
these  States  that  there  was  any  such  thing  as 
excess  in  loving  political  liberty.  And  the  world 
may  well  wonder  that  there  has  been  so  little  ; 
that  Agrarianism,  and  Fourierism,  and  Commun 
ism,  and  their  kindred  degenerations  of  legiti 
mate  popular  liberty,  have  had  so  few  followers, 
and  have  produced  among  us  so  small  results  ; 
that  constitutional  civil  authority  has  been  so 
generally  respected,  so  entirely  preserved,  that 
it  remained  for  the  representatives  and  abettors 
of  despotism  to  do  the  first  acts  that  tended  in 
any  material  extent  to  mar  or  undermine  the 
goodly  governmental  structure  which  our  repub 
lican  ancestors  bequeathed  to  us.  But  the  class 
we  are  contemplating,  deeming  themselves  happy 
in  finding  so  prominent  an  object  as  Southern 
slavery,  against  which  to  vent  their  zeal,  and  a 
sentiment  so  universal,  so  deep-rooted,  so  blame 
less  and  unquestionable,  as  our  inherited  love  of 
popular  liberty,  to  which  they  could  appeal  for 
support  and  cooperation,  soon  made  themselves 
the  prominent  leaders  and  champions  of  all 


202  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

who  could  be  excited  to  pursue  that  liberty  to 
excess. 

The  professedly  Christian  denominations  who 
really  denied  the  truth  of  the  revealed  Script 
ures  had  by  this  time  become  numerous  and  in 
fluential.  These  had  no  objection  to  the  Aboli 
tionists  on  account  of  their  infidelity ;  while 
very  many  members  of  evangelical  churches  felt 
their  love  of  freedom  so*  outraged  by  the  fact  of 
existing  slavery  and  its  attendant  evils,  that  they 
forgot  for  a  time  their  obligations  of  supreme 
allegiance  to  the  authority  of  divine  Revelation, 
and,  with  more  or  less  sincerity,  affiliated  with 
those  who  derided  a  divinity  who  was  not  up  to 
the  times  on  the  subject  of  human  rights,  and 
cursed  alike  the  producers  and  the  product  of  a 
civil  Constitution  which  bound  them  to  respect 
the  rights  of  those  who  held  their  fellow-men  in 
bondage. 

Could  the  real  character  of  the  Abolitionists, 
and  the  real  weight  of  their  influence,  have  been 
known  and  admitted  North  and  South,  their  due 
space  in  history  would  have  been  less  than  it 
now  is.  But  circumstances  peculiar  to  either 
section,  and  illy  understood  in  the  other,  con 
spired  to  render  their  influence  on  the  affairs  of 
the  country  peculiarly  infelicitous,  and  to  some 
extent  conducive  to  the  present  War. 


LIBERTY'S  CHAMPIONSHIP  USURPED.  203 

Men  brought  up  in  the  license  of  heathenism 
are  kept  quiet  by  its  depressing  ignorance,  if  not 
by  the  fetters  of  its  superstition.  But  when  one 
who  has  enjoyed  the  light  and  health-giving  in 
fluence  of  revealed  religion,  and  has  been  educa 
ted  under  more  or  less  of  its  restraints,  casts 
loose  from  its  authority;  as  he  begins  to  deal 
familiarly  with  things  that  other  people  rever 
ence,  and  to  spurn  the  boundaries  which  others 
never  pass,  in  the  estimation  of  undiscrimina- 
ting  multitudes,  the  noisy  extravagance  of  his 
diction,  and  the  unembarrassed  celerity,  the 
drunken  freedom,  of  his  mental  gait  are  almost 
sure  to  be  mistaken  for  superior  intelligence, 
eloquence,  and  strength. 

Thus  it  came  about  that  the  Abolitionists, 
who  were  really  indefatigable  in  their  labors, 
acquired  a  prominence  before  the  public  mind, 
and  engrossed  a  share  of  attention,  entirely 
disproportioned  to  either  their  political  or  moral 
strength. 

So  early  and  so  effectually  did  they  succeed 
in  taking  under  their  patronage  the  universal 
love  of  popular  liberty  in  all  its  bearings  on  the 
enslaved,  that  it  became  practically  impossible 
for  any  one,  however  true  in  his  support  of  his 
country's  Constitution,  or  however  firm  in  his 
belief  of  the  truths  of  revealed  religion,  to  say 


204  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

or  do  anything  tending  to  limit  or  withstand 
pro-slavery  aggression  without  becoming  more 
or  less  identified  with  these  infidel  leaders  in 
the  estimation  of  the  observant  but  uncom 
mitted  public,  particularly  at  the  South. 


XXXVI. 

MISCHIEVOUS    DIVERSITY    OF    VIEWS    AS     HELD     NORTH     AND 
SOUTH   RESPECTING   THE   ABOLITIONISTS. 

AMONG  the  first  requisites  of  permanent  pop 
ular  liberty  are  popular  self-restraint,  implicit 
submission  to  constituted  authorities,  a  sacred 
regard  for  the  rights  of  the  minority.  In  the 
Northern  States,  where  popular  liberty  obtains 
in  its  greatest  perfection,  this,  as  well  as  every 
other  requisite  of  that  liberty  is,  and  has  long 
been,  largely  possessed.  It  was  this  popular 
self-restraint,  this  sacred  regard  for  the  rights  of 
the  minority,  that  secured  immunity  to  the  Abo 
litionists,  while  they  ranted  and  blazed  against 
the  God  of  revelation,  and  the  Constitution,  and 
founders  of  the  government. 

At  the  South,  where  popular  liberty  never  did 
prevail  to  any  great  extent,  this  popular  self- 
restraint  not  only  did  not  exist,  but  the  very 
conception  of  such  a  thing  was  wanting.  If 
any  minority  there  offended  against  the  senti 
ments  and  wishes  of  the  majority,  or  of  their 
political  leaders,  it  was  "  mob  them,"  u  lynch 
them,"  "call  a  meeting,  appoint  a  vigilance 

18  205 


206  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF   SECESSION. 

committee,"  "  tar  and  feather  them,"  "  duck 
them,"  "  cowhide  them,"  "  shoot  them,"  "  hang 
them,"  —  such  was  the  verdict,  and  such  the 
execution,  and  not  unfrequently  the  execution 
came  first.  The  Southern  people  knew  of  no 
motive  but  cowardice  or  pusillanimity  that  could 
prompt  to  a  different  course.  When  they  be 
came  aware  of  the  conduct  of  the  Abolitionists 
at  the  North,  and  also  that  they  were  not  seri 
ously  interfered  with,  they  of  course  concluded 
that  the  majority  of  the  Northern  people  were 
of  the  same  way  of  thinking,  or  too  cowardly 
and  pusillanimous  to  resist.  If  some  of  the 
more  intelligent  Southerners  ascertained  that 
these  views  which  they  took  of  the  people  of 
the  North  were  not  correct,  they  lacked  both 
the  ability  and  disposition  to  disabuse  the  public 
mind. 

The  Abolitionists  were  regarded  at  the  North 
as  a  set  of  harmless  fanatics,  who  made  a  great 
deal  of  noise,  but  exerted  very  little  influence, 
and  produced  no  direct  practical  results,  and 
would  ultimately  sink  of  their  own  weight  if  let 
alone.  The  divine  declaration, "  They  that  honor 
me  I  will  honor,  and  they  that  despise  me  shall 
be  lightly  esteemed,"  has  seldom  been  more  ob 
viously  or  more  conspicuously  fulfilled,  than  in 
the  history  of  this  class  of  persons. 


THE  AFRICAN  COLONIZATIONISTS.  207 

As  much  of  the  real  anti-slavery  sentiment  of 
the  Revolutionary  period  as  survived  in  the  South 
was  early  embodied  in  the  Colonization  Society, 
an  association  which  aimed  at  and  accomplished 
a  great  work  for  the  negroes  by  withstanding 
the  African  slave-trade,  by  supplying  a  channel 
in  which  whatever  of  anti-slavery  feeling  existed 
in  the  South  could  exert  itself,  by  demonstrating 
the  capability  of  the  negro  race  for  improve 
ment,  civilization,  and  self-government,  and  by 
affording  the  masters  who  were  disposed  to 
emancipate  their  slaves  an  opportunity  to  do  so 
writh  the  prospect  of  the  negroes  being  benefit 
ed  by  their  freedom.  This  society  was  among 
the  first  recipients  of  the  virulent  antipathy  of 
the  Abolitionists.  Henry  Clay,  the  ablest  states 
man  of  his  age,  a  living  martyr  to  his  lack  of 
sympathy  wTith  pro-slavery  politicians,  and  a 
prominent  champion  of  Colonization,  was  reject 
ed  and  defeated  in  the  presidential  canvass  of 
1844  by  the  Abolitionists  of  New  York,  who,  by 
their  factious  course,  procured  the  election  of 
James  K.  Polk,  the  annexation  of  Texas,  the 
war  with  Mexico,  and  the  addition  of  three  other 
of  the  spacious  States  from  the  northern  portion 
of  that  republic,  to  extend  the  area  of  slave  ter 
ritory.  By  their  feeble  impractical  ultraism,  the 
Abolitionists  generated  a  powerful  reactive  influ- 


208  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

ence  in  favor  of  the  pro-slavery  loco-focos,  the 
only  effective  allies  of  Secession  at  the  North. 
Farther  than  this  the  history  of  their  political 
influence  at  the  North  appears  to  be  a  blank. 

At  the  South,  however,  they  were  regarded 
with  more  sincere  concern  and  dread.  They 
were,  to  the  Southern  mind,  the  representatives 
of  all  that  Northern  love  of  popular  liberty 
which  was  dangerous  to  slavery,  and  was  fast 
coming  to  be  distasteful  to  the  common  senti 
ment  as  it  verged  back  on  despotism.  They 
were,  more  or  less  openly,  the  avowed  enemies 
of  revealed  religion  and  of  the  civil  Constitution. 
The  mist  that  hung  about  the  limits  of  their 
numbers  and  their  strength  served  to  magnify 
both  indefinitely.  It  is  true  that  they  generally 
assaulted  slavery  at  a  very  respectful  distance, 
but  no  one  could  tell  what  they  might  not 
accomplish  through  the  mails  and  by  secret 
emissaries,  toward  exploding  the  magazine  on 
which  the  quiet  of  the  Slave  States  is  admitted 
to  repose.  They  had  no  respect  for  the  right  of 
property  in  slaves ;  and,  from  ignorance  or  mal 
ice,  —  to  the  imperilled  Southerner  it  mattered 
little  which,  —  they  had  no  fear  of  a  servile  insur 
rection  being  induced,  nor  any  dread  of  the  un 
told  calamities  which  such  an  event  would  bring. 

The  South  was  full  of  persons  who  were  not 


SOUTHERN   VIEWS   OF    LIBERTY.  209 

consciously  to  blame  for  the  existence  of  slavery 
among  them.  It  was  more  than  full  of  those 
who  denied  the  right  of  Northern  fanatics,  of 
any  class,  more  especially  of  infidels  and  anarch 
ists,  to  visit  upon  their  heads  the  sins  of  their 
fathers,  or  even  their  own  sins,  by  bringing  on 
them  wantonly  the  fact  or  the  fear  of  servile 
insurrection.  They  regarded  the  Federal  Consti 
tution  as  guaranteeing  to  them  the  right  of  "  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  —  even 
the  liberty  of  holding  negroes  as  slaves,  and^ 
the  pursuit  of  happiness  in  working  them  at 
discretion,  without  interference  from  without 
the  limits  of  their  own  slave  section;  and  with 
any  one  who  construed  that  great  document 
differently  they  could  naturally  have  but  short 
parleying.  The  peculiar  democratic  virtue  of 
that  self-restraint  —  that  respect  for  the  rights 
of  the  minority  which  led  the  Northern  people 
to  harbor  and  protect  incendiaries  while  as 
saulting  the  peace  of  the  South  —  was  a  virtue 
of  which  they  had  no  comprehension.  Neither 
were  Southern  minds  ever  able  to  compre 
hend  the  peculiar  innocence,  or  excellence,  of 
that  mode  of  logic  by  which  slavery  was 
denounced  as  a  u  sin "  against  the  deistical 
morals  of  a  class  of  men  who  revile  the  sacred 
Scriptures  and  their  divine  Author. 

18* 


210  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

The  Abolitionists  were,  and  necessarily  must 
have  been,  a  source  of  extreme,  incessant  irrita 
tion  to  the  people  of  the  South,  and  enabled  the 
despotic  pro-slavery  leaders  to  accomplish  what 
they  desired,  in  dividing  the  two  sections  from 
each  other,  and  in  arraying  the  people  of  each 
in  hostility  against  the  other.  Without  this  irrita 
tion,  the  extreme  bitterness  which  has  been  man 
ifested  at  the  South,  throughout  the  present  con 
test,  against  the  Northern  people,  never  could 
Jiave  been  generated.  Without  the  universal 
obloquy  which  has  been  brought  upon  the  cause 
of  negro  freedom,  by  its  most  prominent  advo 
cates,  President  Lincoln  would  never  have  been 
able  to  keep  his  constituency  quiet  for  a  year  and 
eight  months  after  the  opening  of  the  war  be 
fore  issuing  his  Proclamation  of  Emancipation. 

It  may  not  be  inappropriate  here  to  suggest 
the  inquiry,  whether  the  peculiar  tenets  of 
that  no-government  class,  —  of  whom  the  Abo 
litionists  form  a  conspicuous  specimen,  who 
begin  by  abolishing  future  punishment,  then 
capital  punishment,  and  proceed  along  down  to 
the  practical  abolition  of  all  punishment, — have 
not  been  the  source  of  much  of  the  extreme, 
misplaced,  and  sickening  leniency  with  which 
the  present  national  administration  has  been 
wont  to  absolve  culprits  of  every  class  and  dye 


WHY  CRIMINALS   ARE  NOT   PUNISHED.  211 

upon  the  guaranty  of  their  mere  idle  promise 
to  do  better  ?  —  whether  former  administrations 
have  not  been  to  some  extent  affected  by  the 
same  putrescent  moral  paralysis  ?  —  and  whether 
the  same  is  not  a  threatening  source  of  national 
decadence  ? 

To  those  who  believe  in  a  moral  government 
of  the  universe,  it  may  not  be  without  interest 
or  profit  to  inquire,  whether  the  present  pro 
tracted  and  afflictive  war  has  not  been  divinely 
sent  on  the  Northern  States  to  check  and  turn 
back  the  growth  of  this  no-punishment,  no-gov 
ernment  deism,  the  offspring  of  protracted  afflu 
ence  and  peace,  which  has  already  done  much 
to  undermine  the  foundations  of  our  nation's 
moral  strength. 


XXXVII. 

THE  DESPOTIC  CLASS  IN  EUROPE  IDENTIFIED  WITH  THE  DES 
POTS  OF  AMERICA  IN  THE  EXISTING  ONSLAUGHT  TO  DE 
STROY  DEMOCRACY. 

THE  third  and  last  great  collateral  topic  that 
enters  into  the  plan  of  the  present  work,  is  the 
part  taken  by  monarchists  abroad  in  bringing 
about  the  Secession  of  the  Southern  States,  and 
sustaining  the  present  intestine  War. 

As  the  time  approached  for  the  full  forma 
tion  of  a  popular  government  on  this  continent, 
the  monarchies  of  Europe  grew  sickly  and  dis 
turbed.  It  was  as  if  a  demand  for  increased 
popular  rights  and  liberties  had  been  infused 
into  the  popular  masses  by  an  unseen  hand.  In 
England,  this  popular  longing  after  liberty  burst 
forth  in  the  days  of  Cromwell,  and,  after  annull 
ing  for  a  time  the  prerogatives  of  the  monarch, 
allowed  their  restoration,  but  circumscribed  the 
sphere  of  their  action  with  a  resistless  hand. 
From  that  time  down  to  the  recent  revolution 
in  Italy,  every  nation  has  been  more  or  less  agi 
tated  by  the  same  upheaval  of  the  masses,  the 

same  irrepressible  demand  for  enlarged  popular 

212 


PARTIES    IN  EUROPE.  213 

rights  and  liberties.  The  result  has  been,  that 
parties  have  been  produced,  monarchist  and  lib 
eral,  not"  with  very  definite  boundaries,  or  with 
exact  intelligent  aims,  but  with  strong,  insatiate 
longings  for  the  preservation  or  modification  of 
the  old  monarchical  system.  The  nobility,  the 
privileged  classes,  the  very  wealthy,  and  the 
very  poor,  usually  adhere  to  royalty ;  while  the 
middle  classes  incline  to  popular  liberty.  The 
conflict  between  these  two  parties  comes  to  di 
rect  intelligent  collision  only  on  sparse  occa 
sions.  For  the  most  part,  it  goes  on  in  a 
dreamy,  obscure  manner,  like  the  alternate 
dominance  of  disease  and  health,  life  and  death, 
in  the  frame  of  a  sufferer  from  severe  disease. 
The  antagonism  is  there ;  it  is  necessary,  in 
evitable.  The  popular  party  has  the  irresolute, 
undetermined,  unconscious  strength;  its  antago 
nist  has  present  possession  of  power,  intelligent 
fear,  and  iron  organization.  It  has  learned 
much  by  experience  in  its  protracted  and 
deepening  conflict.  It  has  greatly  modified 
its  demands,  its  aims,  and  its  modes  of  action. 
So  much  so  that  it  seems  almost  to  have  com 
bined  within  itself  more  or  less  of  the  con 
stituent  elements  of  its  antagonistic  principle, 
popular  government.  The  reigns  of  Cromwell 
and  of  the  Napoleon  dynasty  appear  to  be 


214  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

of  a  mongrel  class,  —  a  peaceful  commingling 
of  despotism  and  democracy.  But  all  such 
specimens  are  transient,  and  soon  subside  to 
the  one  party  or  the  other. 

During  the  war  of  the  American  Revolution, 
while  the  real  nature  of  democratic  govern 
ment,  and  its  universal  antagonism  to  monarchy, 
were  not  understood,  moved  by  her  chronic  an 
tipathy  to  England,  France  so  far  forgot  herself 
as  to  take  sides  with  the  revolted  colonies,  and 
assist  them  to  achieve  their  independence.  This 
proved  to  be  the  first  step  toward  the  establish 
ment  of  a  system  of  democratic  government, 
which  has  reacted  disastrously  on  the  cause  of 
monarchy  in  the  old  world.  By  this  act, 
France  won  the  everlasting  gratitude  of  the  hu 
man  family ;  but  she  planted  in  her  own  bosom 
the  seeds  of  that  popular  commotion  that  in 
gulfed  her  ancient  dynasty.  No  monarchy 
ever  before  had  the  opportunity,  none  since  has 
had  the  fatuity,  to  commit  such  a  blunder  as  to 
give  willing  aid  to  the  natural  enemy  of  all 
monarchies. 

During  the  period  in  which  only  natural 
causes  acted  in  converting  the  Southern  people 
back  from  democracy  to  despotism,  Europe  was 
innocent  of  the  change.  When  natural  causes 
began  to  give  place  to  intelligent  design,  it  was 
otherwise. 


COLLUSION   AGAINST  LIBERTY.  215 

No  sooner  did  the  idea  enter  a  traitor's  brain 
that  something  could  be  made  by  a  severance 
of  the  American  Union,  than  the  desire,  the  ex 
pectation,  the  assurance  of  foreign  aid  came  in 
to  stimulate  and  confirm  the  traitorous  intent. 
Not  that  the  traitorous  crew  of  Calhoun  or  of 
Davis  understood,  as  we  now  understand,  their 
own  lapse  back  from  democracy  to  despotism, 
or  the  necessary  unanimity  of  all  despotic  hearts 
and  hands,  when  their  common  interests  are  at 
stake,  or  the  cause  of  popular  freedom  is  to  be 
assailed;  but  there  was  a  felt  bond  of  sympa 
thetic  union  between  the  despot  class  in  this 
country  and  their  kind  abroad. 

These  expectations  of  foreign  aid  were  even 
greater  than  events  have  justified.  Like  the 
kindred  expectations  which  were  placed  on  their 
corrupted  and  enslaved  political  party  in  the 
North,  these  also  were  too  sanguine.  Not  that 
the  monarchical  class  in  Europe  were  insincere 
or  unfaithful,  but  their  own  situation  was  too 
delicate  and  critical ;  they  lacked  the  power  to 
do  all  that  their  hearts  desired.  The  antagon 
ism  of  their  freedom-loving  class  in  their  own 
communities  was  too  intense  and  threatening.* 

*  H.  G.  Moffat,  a  working  man,  thus  speaks  to  the  aristocratic  sympathiz 
ers  with  the  South  in  England,  through  the  columns  of  the  Daily  News : 

"  It  may  be  very  fashionable  with  the  upper  ten  thousand  to  sympathize 
with  the  slave-breeding  aristocrats  of  the  South,  but  we  of  humbler  birth 


216  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF   SECESSION. 

The  American  despots  judged  the  people  of 
Europe  too  much  by  the  abject  millions  of  their 
own  poor  white  population.  The  contempt  they 
had  so  often  expressed  for  the  headless  populace 
in  the  Northern  States  they  began  to  think  de 
served,  and  they  transferred  the  same  opinion 
to  the  common  mass,  the  liberty-loving  class,  in 
Europe.  These  slaveholding  despots  had  never 
experienced  the  power  of  an  intelligent,  freedom- 
loving  people,  undisciplined  and  unguided  by  a 
monarchical  head;  and  they  were  left,  in  their 
intoxicated  pride  of  power,  to  presume  that 
without  monarchical  guidance  and  headship 
there  could  be  no  formidable  strength.  They 
trusted  to  their  own  ability,  by  cutting  off  the 
supply  of  cotton,  to  produce  wide-spread  dis 
tress,  and  they  trusted  to  the  mendacity  of 
themselves,  and  of  their  European  friends,  to  in 
terpret  this  distress  to  the  public  ear,  as  caused 

have  deeper  ties  that  bind  us  to  America,  both  political  and  social.  When 
•we  see  the  great  number  leaving  our  shores  for  that  great  country,  and  as 
four  out  of  six  are  relations  of  us  common  fellows,  what  will  be  our  feel 
ings  ?  What  of  mine,  having  sisters  and  all  that  is  very  dear  to  me,  if  we 
see  our  men-of-war  bombarding  New  York  City,  knowing  morally  we  have 
been  the  cause  ?  If  we  are  not  allowed  to  vote  and  make  the  government 
here,  we  will  not  quietly  allow  the  people's  government  to  be  destroyed 
there.  Working  men  are  seldom  heard  in  print  upon  this  question;  but  let 
not  our  gentry  suppose  there  is  no  sympathy  for  the  North  here.  They  will 
make  an  awful  mistake  if  they  go  to  war  with  America.  It  may  be  popu 
lar  with  the  rich,  the  snobs  and  city  swells,  but  not  with  working  men. 
Let  them  remember  the  Lancashire  men  starving  first  sooner  than  lift  up  a 
finger  against  true  liberty."  —  Boston  Journal,  September  24<A,  1863. 


A  WAY  PREPARED.  217 

by  the  belligerent  movements  of  the  United 
State's  government,  in  case  that  government 
presumed  to  move  resistfully  against  the  attempt 
for  its  dismemberment. 

They  knew  that  there  was,  in  foreign  lands,  a 
strong  antipathy  toward  this  government ;  they 
had  themselves,  while  carrying  on  the  govern 
ment,  experienced  and  taken  pains  to  aggravate 
this.'*  And  the  traitorous  desire  and  purpose  of 
severing  the  States  of  the  Union  had  no  sooner 
assumed  an  intelligent  form,  than  fit  and  trusty 
individuals  of  the  monarchical  class  abroad  be 
gan  to  be  communicated  with,  consulted,  and 
confided  in. 

Not  only  were  slave-holders  at  home  and  mon 
archists  abroad  united  by  a  felt  sympathy  and 
oneness  of  interest  in  their  desire  to  assault  and 
ruin  democracy  wherever  it  presented  itself, 
but  there  was  a  kindred  treason  against  the  pop 
ular  masses  of  their  own  communities,  which  in- 

*  Let  it  be  remembered  that,  under  the  controlling  influence  of  the  same 
traitorous  heads  that  now  control  the  Rebel  Confederacy,  the  United  States 
government  took  a  position  of  unfriendliness  almost  amounting  to  hostility 
to  England,  when  the  latter  power  was  engaged,  with  France,  in  the  war 
against  Russia  in  the  Crimea ;  and  also  that,  under  the  same  controlling  in 
fluence,  the  proposal  to  abolish  privateering,  generally  adopted  in  Europe, 
was  rejected  by  the  United  States  government.  And  there  appears  at  least 
strong  probability,  if  not  proof,  that  in  those  and  many  like  instances,  un 
friendliness  to  England  on  the  part  of  our  government  was  instigated  by 
those  designing  men  on  purpose  to  prepare  England  to  pursue  just  such  an 
unfriendly  course  as  she  has  pursued  towards  this  government,  in  an 
emergency  like  the  present,  which  emergency  was,  by  them,  not  unforeseen. 


218  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

fluenced  them  severally  alike.  The  slave-holding 
traitor  had  engaged  to  beguile  and  delude  his 
seven  and  three  fourths  millions  of  iion-slave- 
holding  white  population  into  doing  his  fighting 
for  him,  at  their  own  expense  and  at  the  immi 
nent  peril  of  their  lives,  and  with  the  experi 
ence  of  all  the  disaster  which  unsuccessful  war 
fare  can  inflict,  and  all,  with  no  other  prospect 
or  reward,  in  case  of  success,  but  to  complete 
and  seal  their  own  irreversible  subjugation  to 
their  successful  masters ;  while  the  European 
monarchist  engaged  to  defraud  and  cajole  the 
popular  European  masses  into  supporting  him 
in  his  costly  war  alliance  with  the  slave-holders, 
for  the  extinguishment  of  the  spirit  and  insti 
tutions  of  popular  freedom  on  this  continent. 


XXXVIII. 

THE    EXTENT    AND    EFFICIENCY   OF    EUROPEAN    COOPERATION 
WITH    AMERICAN    TREASON. 

THE  natural  sympathies,  the  interests,  and 
leanings  of  the  American  slave-holders  and  the 
European  monarchists  being  thus  identical,  it 
remains  for  history  proper  to  present  what 
evidence  may  reach  the  light  concerning  the 
time  and  manner,  the  terms  and  the  extent,  of 
obligations  into  which  the  latter  entered  to 
sustain  the  former  in  their  efforts  to  break  up 
this  government. 

It  is  already  matter  of  history,  that,  almost 
upon  receiving  the  first  intelligence  that  armed 
traitors  had  assaulted  the  United  States  govern 
ment,  with  a  promptness  and  unanimity  that 
demonstrate  previous  concert  and  collusion,  the 
leading  powers  of  Europe  vouchsafed  belligerent 
rights  to  the  insurgents,  thereby  preparing  the 
way  for  full  recognition  of  their  assumed  nation 
ality,  menacing  this  government  with  that  full 
recognition,  and  advancing  as  far  toward  it  as 
they  could  and  not  incur  a  risk  that  amounts 
almost  to  a  certainty  of  involving  themselves 

219 


220  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

in  overt  war,  for  breaking  down  the  United 
States  government,  and  for  giving  existence, 
strength,  and  character  to  the  perfidious  germ 
of  a  slave-holders'  despotism. 

While    these    governments  were  thus  ingen 
iously  approximating  national  alliance  with  the 
Southern  traitors,  in  England  particularly,  the 
periodical  press,  as  far  as  it  could  be  controlled 
by  the  governing  class,  was  set  at  work  with  all 
the    infernal   art  and    energy  that    money  and 
mendacious   malice   could   infuse,  to   inculpate 
and  decry  the  government  and  people  of  this 
country,  and  to  extol  and  sanctify  the  perjured 
crew  who  had  undertaken  to  trample  out  this 
beacon  light  of  liberty,  and  to  erect  their  off 
shoot  of  Africa's  barbaric  despotism  in  its  place. 
This   course   was   adapted    and    designed   to 
discourage  and  weaken  the  loyal  sentiment  in 
the  Northern  States,  to  intimidate  and  depress 
the  government,  to  embolden  the  northern  allies 
of  the  Rebels ;   as  far  as  possible  to  turn  the 
opinion  of  the   civilized  world   against  us,  and 
prepare  the  people  of  England  and  France  to 
sustain   their   governments  in   farther  steps  in 
the  direction  they  had  started,  if  need  should 
be,  even  to  open  war. 

In  England,  the  people  had  to  be  immediately 
appealed  to  and  controlled,  and  the  queen  was 


;      EUROPE   AIDING  TREASON.  221 

as  one  of  them.  Their  inclination  to  the  side 
of  freedom  was  strong,  and  their  power  to 
thwart  the  monarchical  party  was  indisputable. 

In  France,  there  was  nothing  to  be  feared 
from  the  people,  provided  a  general  outbreak 
and  domestic  revolution  were  effectually  guarded 
against ;  and,  by  imperial  dictation,  the  empire 
was  impoverished  to  send  out  and  maintain  an 
army  of  observation  on  the  borders  of  this 
republic,  ready  to  take  advantage  of  the  first 
opportunity  for  interfering,  under  the  pretence 
of  collecting  a  few  millions  of  dollars,  in  bogus 
accounts,  said  to  be  due  French  subjects  in 
Mexico. 

It  is  matter  of  history,  that  the  monarchical 
party  in  England  succeeded  so  well  as  to  be  able 
to  appropriate  and  spend  between  one  and  two 
millions  sterling  in  equipping  a  fleet,  and  in 
sending  troops  to  Canada,  for  war  with  the 
United  States ;  and  to  have  precipitated  that 
war,  had  not  our  government,  with  more  caution 
than  boldness,  averted  the  impending  collision 
by  releasing  the  captured  emissaries  of  the 
rebels.  England's  dependence  on  the  Northern 
States  for  grain  to  keep  starvation  from  her 
borders  served  also  to  defeat  the  hankering  of 
the  monarchical  party  after  war  with  the  Unit 
ed  States. 


222  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

It  is  matter  of  history,  that,  while  the  British 
government  confined  itself  to  the  line  of  a 
menacing  and  semi-hostile  neutrality,  members 
of  the  ruling  class,  in  their  individual  capacity, 
did  all  that  wealth,  energy,  and  industry  could 
do,  with  the  connivance  of  the  British  govern 
ment,  and  with  no  little  success,  to  destroy 
American  commerce  on  the  seas,  and,  by  run 
ning  the  blockade  of  Southern  ports,  to  supply 
the  Rebels  with  all  the  war  material  they 
needed. 

In  the  early  stages  of  the  War,  a  curious 
smile  must  have  passed  over  the  countenances 
of  these  silent  partners  of  the  Rebel  firm,  on 
reading  Secretary  Seward's  official  predictions 
of  the  early  closing  of  the  War,  founded  as 
those  predictions  were  on  the  Southern  destitu 
tion  of  arms  and  war  material ;  whereas  they 
had  themselves  taken  effectual  measures  to  have 
this  destitution  supplied  to  satiety  with  the  best 
arms,  ammunition,  and  material  which  modern 
inventions,  wealth,  skill,  and  the  workshops  of 
Europe  could  produce. 

It  appears  to  have  been  in  the  campaign  of 
our  army  in  Mexico,  during  President  Folk's 
administration,  that  the  authors  of  the  present 
rebellion,  having  effectually  incorporated  them 
selves  with  the  Jackson-Buchanan  party,  sue- 


EUROPEAN   POWERS    RESTRAINED.  223 

ceeded  in  appropriating  that  political  organiza 
tion  to  their  exclusive  use.  It  was  probably  at 
the  Ostend  Conference,  held  by  our  diplomats 
in  Europe  during  President  Pierce's  administra 
tion,  that  arrangements  were  perfected  for  in 
corporating  the  monarchists  of  Europe,  as  far  as 
possible,  into  the  same  combination. 

Nothing  but  the  blast  of  the  breath  of  the 
Almighty,  sent  forth  for  his  own  purposes,  and 
for  his  people's  sake,  is  rendering  this  Confed 
eration  abortive. 

The  reigning  powers  of  Europe  (the  Emperor 
of  Russia  never  was  with  them  in  their  hostility 
to  this  government)  are  not  to  be  exactly  iden 
tified  with  the  monarchical  class.  The  privi 
leges  and  responsibilities  of  power,  and  consid 
erations  of  state,  served  to  modify  the  former, 
and  coerce  them  into  a  course  of  moderation 
and  hesitancy,  with  which  the  American  traitors 
had  no  sympathy  at  all,  and  their  political  allies 
in  Europe  had  scarcely  more. 

The  concessions  of  our  government,  and  the 
demand  for  bread-stuffs  from  the  Northern 
States,  deferred  the  consummation  of  active  inter 
ference  for  our  dismemberment,  until  at  length 
President  Lincoln's  adoption  of  the  emancipa 
tion  policy,  tardy  as  it  was,  so  stirred  the  love 
of  freedom  in  the  minds  of  the  European 


224:  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

masses  that  such  interference  became  impracti 
cable. 

Thus  the  European  allies  of  the  traitor  crew, 
next  to  their  corrupted  partisan  supporters  in 
the  Northern  States,  failed  them  in  their  hour 
of  need.  And  beyond  the  irritation,  intimidat 
ing,  and  partial  and  transient,  though  repeated 
and  frequent,  embarrassment  imposed  on  Presi 
dent  Lincoln's  government,  and  the  protracting 
of  the  war  and  rendering  it  more  exhausting  to 
the  North,  and  more  entirely  ruinous  to  the 
South,  these  allies  have  really  contributed  noth 
ing  to  the  success  of  the  treason  they  under 
took  to  aid. 


XXXIX. 

ROME  AND   THE   REBELLION. 

THE  diabolical  purposes  of  the  European  sup 
porters  of  Secession  in  this  country  have  found 
a  frequent  and  characteristic  exercise  in  sending 
across  the  ocean,  at  stated  and  well-timed  inter 
vals,  a  deluge  of  rumors  and  fabricated  state 
ments,  complete  and  definite  in  circumstantial 
detail,  to  the  effect  that  France  and  England, 
one  or  both,  with,  perhaps,  other  European  pow 
ers,  had  determined,  beyond  reconsideration,  to 
enforce  the  separation  called  for  by  their  admired 
and  loving  partners  in  the  South.  Hardly  any 
thing,  during  the  course  of  the  war,  has  been 
more  trying  to  the  nerves  of  patriotic  men,  both 
in  and  out  of  official  station,  than  these  repeated 
and  perpetual  electro-infernal  appliances.  Rea 
son  and  facts  disproved  their  claims  to  truth  or 
sanity ;  but,  like  some  mysterious  apparition, 
that  owes  its  disturbing  power  to  its  destitution 
of  substance,  the  possibility  of  a  European  com 
bination  to  crush  out  democracy  on  this  conti 
nent  would,  ever  and  anon,  present  itself,  vast, 


225 


226  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

threatening,  and  obscure.  Still  farther  to  conjure 
down  this  boding  apparition,  and  reduce  this 
source  of  disturbing  apprehension  to  its  real 
substance  and  legitimate  proportions,  may  well 
occupy  the  space  of  one  or  two  intercurrent 
chapters  that  did  not  enter  into  the  original 
purpose  of  this  work.  And  these,  while  the 
printer  is  busy  on  other  portions  of  the  work, 
by  the  light  of  the  New  York  riots,  the  success 
of -the  French  in  Mexico,  and  the  confessions  of 
a  prominent  Roman  Catholic  reviewer,  we  now 
attempt  to  supply. 

The  monarchical  party  in  Europe,  their  deep 
and  vital  sympathy  with  Secession,  their  col 
lusion,  counsel,  and  cooperation  with  its  man 
agers,  from  its  inception  onward,  we  have  be 
fore  considered.  But  that  the  Roman  Catholic 
church,  "  drunk  with  the  blood  of  saints/'  and, 
from  the  heights  of  power  which  it  once  occu 
pied,  long  since  gone  down  under  the  universal 
execrations  of  all  who  were  unblinded  by  its 
imbruting  contact,  should  come  forth,  at  this 
late  day,  and  complicate  itself  with  the  con 
federate  enemies  of  all  civil  freedom,  was  not, 
till  recently,  supposed  to  be  practicable. 

It  is  true  that  the  debauched  Northern  par 
tisans  of  the  Southern  despots  have  long  been 
noticeably  prompt  and  earnest  to  conciliate  and 


DESPOTIC    ATTRACTIONS.  227 

attach  to  themselves  the  foreign-born  Romish 
population.  That  the  latter  were  numerous, 
blind,  passionate,  and  undivided,  and,  hence, 
were  eminently  fitted  to  become  stock  in  trade 
for  any  unprincipled  politician,  was  supposed  to 
be  reason  enough  to  explain  the  eagerness  with 
which  the/  were  sought.  That  the  deep,  dark 
spirit  of  despotism  in  the  presiding  Southern 
leaders  of  that  party,  drawn  by  the  native  sym 
pathy  of  fellow-despots,  fellows  in  guilt,  was 
yearning  forth  toward  the  papacy,  like  the 
ascending  toward  the  descending  cone  of  a  yet 
unjoined  waterspout,  was  not  suspected,  until, 
in  the  hour  of  their  greatest  need,  the  papacy 
in  Europe,  the  papacy  in  Mexico,  and  the  grov 
elling  hell  of  the  papacy  in  New  York,  struck 
simultaneously  for  the  rescue  of  the  confederate 
enemies  of  freedom. 

Two  hundred  years  ago,  in  Bedford  jail,  a 
famous  dreamer,  whose  dreams  possess  a  definite- 
ness  and  verity  altogether  surpassing  the  clear 
est  vision  of  the  most  of  waking  observers,  thus 
described  the  papacy,  under  the  figure  of  a 
decrepit  giant :  "  Though  he  be  yet  alive,  he 
is,  by  reason  of  age,  and  also  of  the  many 
shrewd  brushes  that  he  met  with  in  his  younger 
days,  grown  so  crazy  and  stiff  in  his  joints  that 
he  can  do  little  more  than  sit  in  his  cave's 


228  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION, 

mouth,  grinning  at  pilgrims  as  they  go  by,  and 
biting  his  nails  because  he  cannot  come  at 
them." 

A  divinely-inspired  writer,  at  a  much  earlier 
date,  uncovering  the  then  historic  future  of  the 
world,  presents  the  papacy  in  the  form  of  "  a 
beast  having  seven  heads  and  ten  horns,  the 
body  of  a  leopard,  the  feet  of  a  bear,  and  the 
mouth  of  a  lion  ;  and  receiving  his  power,  his 
seat,  and  great  authority,  from  the  dragon  "  that 
represented  civil  despotism ;  from  which  dragon, 
also,  the  beast  appears  to  have  received  the 
healing  of  a  "  deadly  wound."  Now  no  fact  in 
modern  history  is  more  patent  than  that  the 
papacy  and  civil  despotism  have  long  been 
leagued  to  support  each  other.  So  that  it  is  not 
to  be  expected  that  one  of  these  should  receive 
a  deadly  wound,  and  the  other  would  not  writhe, 
and  strive,  as  far  as  in  its  power,  to  heal  its 
wounded  partner.  If  Jeff!  Davis  &  Co.,  the  des 
perate  and  determined  champions  of  new-born 
despotism  on  this  continent,  after  having  ex 
hausted  the  applications  of  the  most  unscrupu 
lous  military  tyranny,  to  extort  farther  assistance 
from  the  impoverished,  denuded,  and  devastated 
South,  are  being  badly  whipped,  and  on  the  point 
of  hopeless  overthrow  before  the  advancing 
flushed,  and  stalwart  armies  of  the  North,  noth- 


DESPOTIC  SYMPATHY.  220 

ing  is  more  natural,  hardly  anything  more 
necessary,  than  that  the  seven-headed  beast,  the 
decrepit  giant,  should  be  in  motion,  to  accom 
plish  what  is  possible  to  be  done  for  their 
deliverance. 

Hence  we  see  that  wily  despot  on  the  throne 
of  France,  —  who*  in  his  Italian  campaign,  went 
just  far  enough  to  receive  the  confidence  of  the 
popular  masses,  far  enough  to  gain  the  credit  of 
yielding  to  just  so  much  of  the  pressure  in  favor 
of  popular  freedom  as  it  was  past  his  power  to 
resist,  far  enough  to  humble  a  dangerous  rival? 
and  to  reduce  the  papacy  to  a  position  in  which 
it  must  know  and  feel  that  the  continuance  of 
its  existence  was  an  imperial  gift,  —  now  in  the 
hour  of  greatest  peril  to  the  slave-holders'  des 
potism,  is  found,  by  favor  of  the  church  of  Rome, 
establishing  a  military  despotism  in  the  city  of 
Mexico,  and  pouring  along  our  Southern  borders 
a  naval  and  military  force  limited  by  nothing 
but  his  own  discretion. 

Simultaneously  with  this,  evidently  in  obedi 
ence  to  orders  issued  from  the  Confederate  cap 
ital,  through  the  traitor  leaders  of  the  despotic  * 
party  in  the  Northern  States,  New  York  City, 
for  successive  days  and  nights,  was  committed 
to  the  tender  mercies  of  a  Roman  Catholic  mob, 

*  See  Appendix  B,  at  the  clos«  of  th«  volume. 


230  NATURAL   HISTORY   OP   SECESSION. 

describing  which,  an  eminent  literary  writer,* 
who  walked  among  them,  hour  after  hour,  uses 
the  following  language  :  "  Tipsy  women  and 
boys  (of  whom  the  crowd  was  more  than  half 
composed)  —  the  whole  air  and  behavior  of  this 
wicked  and  dirty  plurality  expressed  an  exulting 
lawlessness  and  defiance  —  hives  of  sickness  and 
vice.  It  is  wonderful  to  see,  and  difficult  to 
believe,  that  so  much  misery  and  disease  and 
utter  wretchedness  could  be  huddled  together, 
—  lewd,  but  pale  and  sickly,  young  women, 
scarcely  decent  in  their  ragged  attire,  were  im 
pudent,  and  scattered  everywhere  in  the  crowd ; 
numbers  deformed,  numbers  made  hideous  by 
self-neglect  and  infirmity ;  numbers  paralytics ; 
drunkards,  imbecile,  or  idiotic,  forlorn  in  their 
poverty-stricken  abandonment  of  the  world  — 
hideous,  with  hope  and  vanity  all  gone  —  the 
female  form  and  features  made  frightful  by  sin, 
squalor,  and  debasement.  There  were  no  decent 
Irish  among  them.  Irish  they  all  were,  —  every 
one  of  them,  —  but  they  were  the  dirty,  half- 
drunken,  brutal  rowdies.  In  ordinary  life,  such 
fellows  sneak  about  and  hide  from  daylight  in 
places  where  they  can  drink  and  debauch  and 
contrive  wickedness ;  but  here,  where  this  grand 
fire  made  them  feel  like  masters,  and  gave  them 

*  N.  P.  Willis,  of  ths  Home  Journal. 


EFFECTS   OF  ROMANISM.  231 

impudence  for  the  hour,  they  were  pictures  of 
saucy  beggars,  half-drunken  brutes,  and  robbers, 
longing  to  put  a  clutch  upon  your  throat,  and 
empty  your  pockets.  One  cf  our  daily  papers 
estimates  this  class  of  New  York  population  at 
twenty  thousand." 

Outside  the  confines  of  the  grossest  heathen 
ism,  nothing  but  the  debasing  spiritual  despotism 
of  the  Romish  church  has  power  to  produce  the 
subject  for  such  a  portraiture,  —  has  power  to 
prepare  and  furnish  the  instrument  for  such  a 
desperate  and  dastardly  assault  on  all  that  per 
tains  to  human  well-being.  It  is  the  peculiar 
province  and  ability  of  that  "  mother  of  harlots  " 
to  reduce  the  worthiest  races  of  the  human  fam 
ily  to  a  condition  of  depravity  and  vice  and 
suffering  wretchedness,  and  to  endow  them  with 
dispositions  of  fiendish  wantonness,  to  which  not 
the  savage  state,  the  brute  creation,  nor  hardly 
slavery  itself,  affords  a  parallel.  Of  all  who  have 
enjoyed  £he  precious  advantages  of  mature  de 
mocracy,  it  is  peculiar  to  the  heart  and  habits  of 
the  despotized  and  traitorous  Northern  partisans 
of  Southern  despots,  to  order,  and  control,  and 
put  into  active  operation,  the  instrument  which 
the  papacy  had  provided  for  desolating  the  city  of 
New  York  at  the  particular  juncture  when  Lee, 


232  NATURAL  HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

the  military  leader  of  the  Confederate  hosts,  was 
invading  Pennsylvania,  Semmes,  with  his  British 
cruisers,  was  burning  American  commerce  at  the 
mouths  of  Northern  harbors,  and  the  British 
press  and  ministry,  with  the  subtle  Frenchman 
joining  in,  were  blowing  their  strongest,  heartiest 
blast  in  favor  of  recognizing  as  real  the  assumed 
nationality  and  independence  of  the  Confederate 
slaveocracy.  This  was  also  the  point  of  time  at 
which  Napoleon  III.  first  openly  expressed  him 
self  possessed  of  the  power  and  the  will,  by 
papal  aid,  to  erect  Mexico  into  a  permanent 
despotism  on  our  Southern  border. 

Read  now  a  specimen  of  the  style  in  which 
the  papal  priests  and  periodicals  pronounce  in 
sidious  curses  on  all  that  remains  of  civil  free 
dom,  and  declare  their  admiration  for  the  "  gal 
lant  and  noble  "  despots  of  the  South  who  are 
forcing  their  poor  white  population  on,  to  be 
slaughtered  by  hecatombs,  to  render  their  own 
and  negro  slavery  perpetual. 

Says  the  "  Metropolitan  Record  "  of  July  18th : 
"The  Washington  despotism  has  at  length  de 
termined  on  testing  its  power  over  the  people 
of  the  Northern  States.  The  conscription  has 
commenced !  For  the  first  time  in  the  history 
of  this  Republic,  American  freemen  are  to  be 
drafted  like  the  veriest  slaves  of  the  most 
crushing  European  despotism. 


ROMISH   PATRIOTISM.  233 

"  Will  the  men  of  the  North  submit  to  this 
monstrous  attempt  to  fasten  upon  them  a  per 
manent  military  despotism  ?  Is  it  possible  they 
are  ready  to  submit  to  the  yoke  ?  We  trust  not. 

"  We  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  if  the 
people  submit  to  be  drafted,  to  carry  out  the 
avowed  policy  of  confiscation  and  emancipation, 
that  the  last  vestige  of  American  freedom  will 
be  swept  away  forever.  We  are  heart  and  soul 
opposed  to  the  conscription. 

"We  shall  never,  under  any  circumstances, 
raise  an  arm  against  the  South.  We  do  not 
seek  to  disguise  our  admiration  for  that  gallant 
and  noble  people,  and  sooner  than  see  them 
subjected  to  the  abolition  yoke,  (!)*  we  would 
prefer  perpetual  separation." 

In  evasion  (or  defiance)  of  the  law  of  Con 
gress,  punishing  resistance  to  the  draft,  and  of 
the  authorities  on  whom  it  devolves  to  execute 
that  law,  such  is  the  present  uniform  and  con 
tinuous  utterance,  not  of  one  organ  only,  but 
of  the  class  of  Roman  Catholic  periodicals  in 
this  country,  of  which  the  ordinary  function  is 
to  proclaim  the  dictates  of  infallibility  to  sev 
eral  millions  of  blind,  unquestioning  subordi- 

*"  Abolition  yoke,"  —  a  solecism  eminently  fit  to  be  uttered  by  the  organ 
of  a  power,  of  which  John,  the  Revelator,  said,  that  of  old  she  trafficked  in 
"  wheat,  and  beasts,  and  sheep,  and  horses,  and  chariots,  and  slaves,  and 
•ouis  of  men." 

20* 


234  NATURAL   HISTORY   OP  SECESSION. 

nates,  filling  the  place  and  enjoying  the  privi 
leges,  and  invested  with  the  governing  influence 
of  American  freemen. 

It  may  be  recollected  by  many  who  will  read 
these  pages,  that  a  few  years  ago  a  thrill  almost 
of  terror  ran  through  the  Roman  Catholic  com 
munities  of  Europe,  on  waking  to  a  conscious 
ness  of  the  fact  that  some  one  or  two  hundred 
thousand  of  the  unsuspecting  and  unsuspected 
devotees  of  their  religion  were  annually  migrat 
ing  to  this  country,  of  whom  a  large  proportion 
became  gradually  alienated,  and  eventually  re 
nounced  their  allegiance  to  Rome's  spiritual 
despotism. 

No  one  who  is  at  all  acquainted  with  the 
character  or  history  of  the  papacy  would  be 
backward  to  believe  that  such  a  leak  as  this, 
running  out  from  her  numbers  and  her  strength, 
would  be  sure  to  be  effectually  provided  against. 
Neither  would  it  be  matter  of  surprise  to  such 
a  one,  that  no  flourish  of  trumpets  was  sounded 
over  that  effectual  provision,  as  is  likely  to  be 
the  case  in  a  democratic  community  when  any 
thing  of  public  importance  is  accomplished. 

But  after  the  lapse  of  quiet  years,  we  now 
have  a  glimpse  of  what  has  been  undertaken  to 
check  this  out-go,  and  also  of  its  success.  In 
addition  to  almost  all  possible  appliances  to 


ROMISH    VEBACTTY.  235 

retain  among  themselves  the  instruction  of 
their  youth,  to  counteract  the  influence  which 
our  free  institutions  naturally  exert  on  them, 
and  to  retain  the  membership  of  their  commun 
ion  in  devout  and  blind  and  degraded  depen 
dence  on  their  appointed  priests,  an  able  corps 
of  priestly  and  editorial  authorities  have  been 
provided  (native  Americans,  where  such  could 
possibly  be  procured),  upon  the  occurrence  of 
such  a  juncture  in  our  nation's  affairs  as  that 
above  described,  so  to  put  the  authority,  the 
sanctity,  and  the  powerful  superstition  of  the 
papal  church  in  requisition  as  to  insure  from 
the  Roman  Catholic  millions  of  our  Northern 
population,  an  unqualified  acceptance,  as  simple 
truth,  of  a  diabolical  tissue  of  treason  and  false 
hood  like  that  before  quoted. 

The  individual,  or  conclave,  who  framed  the 
statements  quoted,  dictate  to  those  Romish  mil 
lions,  to  be  received  and  acted  on  as  true,  that 
the  government  of  the  United  States  as  admin 
istered  by  President  Lincoln  is  a  "  despotism,'* 
because  it  is  attempting  to  keep  up  its  armies 
by  conscription.  The  ground,  and  the  only 
ground,  for  this  malignant  falsehood,  is  the  des 
potic  nature  of  the  organization  and  measures, 
without  which  military  force  does  not  and  can 
not  exist  for  any  purpose  whatsoever.  It  is  not 


236  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

only  that  said  government  does  not  dissolve  it 
self  into  non-existence  at  the  first  challenge  of 
armed  and  perjured  traitors,  but  that,  after 
having  exhausted  the  North  by  calling  for,  and 
receiving,  during  the  past  twenty-eight  months 
of  the  war,  a  million  and  a  half  of  men,  of 
whom  perhaps  one-half  are  lost  to  the  service 
by  disease  and  casualties,  and  the  rest  are  retir 
ing  by  the  expiration  of  their  terms  of  enlist 
ment  ;  and,  after  having  exhausted  the  North 
by  an  expenditure  of  money  quite  in  propor 
tion  to  the  number  of  men,  now,  at  the  com 
bined  summons  of  the  bloody  despots  of  the 
South,  their  despotized  and  traitorous  partisans 
of  the  North,  the  lying  and  pirate-nursing  aris 
tocracy  of  Europe,  and  the  crippled  beast  upon 
the  seven  hills,  the  "  Washington  "  government 
does  not  perform  voluntary  suicide  for  the  tech 
nical  objection  to  its  necessary  course,  that  it  is 
despotic  to  draft ! 

Military  organization  is  despotic  in  form  to 
the  highest  degree.  It  is  highly  despotic  to  put 
one  man  under  the  absolute  and  almost  uncon 
ditional  authority  of  another,  as  is  done  in  every 
military  company,  and  without  doing  which  no 
military  command  or  power  exists.  It  is  des 
potic  to  say  to  citizens  outside  the  army  ranks, 
you  shall  so  restrict  your  indulgence  in  freedom 


THE   "  WASHINGTON  DESPOTISM."  237 

of  speech,  and  of  the  press,  as  not  to  convey 
military  information  to  the  enemy,  nor  create 
insubordination  in  our  army  ranks,  nor  discour 
age  enlistments,  nor  resist  a  draft,  when  ordered. 
Yet,  all  these  features  of  despotism  are  inci 
dent  to,  and  inseparable  from,  the  first  and  sim 
plest  exercise  of  military  strength.  Jefferson 
Davis  and  his  perjured  fellows,  C.  L.  Vallandig- 
ham,  the  prince  of  Ohio  Copperheads,  *  the  edi 
tors  of  the  " Metropolitan  Record  "  and  "Boston 
Pilot,"  and  the  Romish  ecclesiastics  who  dictate 
what  these  editors  shall,  and  what  they  shall  not 
say,  all  knew  and  understood  this  perfectly  well 
when  they  first  combined  by  military  force  to 
attack  the  United  States  government.  It  was 
an  original  part  of  their  diabolical  contrivance, 
first,  by  making  an  armed  assault,  to  force  upon 
the  administration  the  inevitable  arid  perfectly 
foreseen  necessity  of  resorting  to  this  formally 
despotic  exercise  of  power  to  defend  its  veriest 
existence  ;  and  then,  as  soon  as  this  exercise  of 
power  was  resorted  to,  through  the  agency  of 
these  Copperhead  and  Romish  operators  in  the 
loyal  States,  to  raise  a  perfect  hallabaloo  about 
the  "  despotism  of  the  Washington  government." 
This  is  no  fancy  operation.  It  is  a  war  measure 
of  the  first  importance.  If,  by  this  outcry 

*  See  Appendix  D. 


238  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

against  the  government,  a  majority  of  the  vo 
ters  can  be  deluded  into  disfavoring  voluntary 
enlistments,  and  into  resisting  a  draft,  then, 
even  at  this  late  day,  and  after  all  our  victories, 
and  our  exhaustion,  the  national  name  and  life 
and  hope  expire  by  suicide  in  ignominious 
chaos;  and  the  leagued  powers  of  Despotism 
and  Popery  triumph  by  malignant  guile. 

During  the  self-same  hour,  in  which  military 
power  in  the  Southern  Confederacy  is  forcing 
every  man  within  its  reach,  between  the  ages 
of  sixteen  and  forty-five,  —  or  sixty,  as  some  of 
their  edicts  say, —  to  take  up  arms  and  lay  down 
their  lives,  if  success  should  require,  for  the  ex 
tinction  of  free  government,  this  accredited 
mouth-piece  of  the  papacy  exhorts  his  followers 
to  aid  and  succor  the  same  cause,  by  not  sub 
mitting  to  be  drafted  into  the  army  which  is 
fighting  for  the  only  democratic  government  on 
earth ;  which  drafting  he  amuses  himself,  and 
attempts  to  deceive  them,  by  calling  "  a  mon 
strous  attempt  to  fasten  upon  them  a  permanent 
military  despotism." 

In  the  same  style  of  veracity  he  goes  on  not 
only  to  call  the  confiscation  of.  the  property 
and  the  freeing  of  the  slaves  of  Rebel  despots, 
"the  sweeping  away  of  the  last  vestige  of 
American  freedom,"  —  but  he  also  goes  farther  to 


PAPAL   UNANIMITY.  239 

say  —  what  no  one  could  doubt,  unless  it  might 
be  those  who  were  stupid  enough  to  believe 
what  he  had  already  stated — that  "he  would 
never,  under  any  circumstances,  raise  an  arm 
against  the  South." 

He  admires  the  " noble  gallantry"  of  seven 
and  three-fourth  millions  of  abject  whites,  driven 
and  slaughtered  like  sheep,  by  a  few  thousand 
slave  drivers,  for  their  own  purposes;  and  rather 
than  see  the  aims  of  these  few  cruel,  bloody 
despots  defeated,  he  would  "prefer  perpetual 
separation,"  which  is  all  they  ask  us  at  present 
to  grant. 

While  these  more  secular  organs  of  the  pa 
pacy  are  thus  putting  light  for  darkness,  and 
darkness  for  light,  truth  for  falsehood,  and  false 
hood  for  truth,  despotism  for  democracy,  and  de 
mocracy  for  despotism,  with  the  sanction  of 
infallibility  before  the  Catholic  millions  of  our 
Northern  population,  at  the  crisis,  of  the  strife, 
the  Pope  himself  and  his  highest  American 
prelate  are  with  all  earnestness  addressing  the 
same  class  for  the  same  end,  but  in  less  simple 
terms.  Their  saintly  lips  do  not  say,  with  the 
"Record,"  that  they  desire  above  all  things,  a 
separation  of  the  Union,  assured,  as  they  are,  that 
separation  and  destruction  are  in  this  connec 
tion  perfectly  synonymous  terms.  But  they  ex- 


240  NATURAL   HISTORY  OP  SECESSION. 

hort  to  "peace,"  which,  at  this  juncture  in  the 
progress  of  the  war,  and  in  the  ears  of  those 
whom  they  address,  they  know  perfectly  well 
means  nothing  else  but  resistance  to  the  United 
States  government,  and  submission  to  whatever 
despot  traitors  in  arms  see  fit  to  demand. 


L  £  UK  A  I,  Y 
UNIVERSITY   op 

CALIFORNIA. 

"v«- — -^—^S 

ILL. 

ROME  AND  THE  REBELLION — FRANCE,  AUSTRIA,  AND  ENG 
LAND  AT  A  GAME  IN  MEXICO. 

As,  in  speaking  of  Europe's  complications  with 
the  Confederate  enemies  of  free  government  on 
this  continent,  we  find  it  needful  to  discriminate 
between  the  democratic  and  the  despotic  classes 
where  despotism  is  still  dominant,  so  in  speaking 
of  the  part  which  papists  are  taking  in  this  war, 
we  need  to  distinguish  those  in  whom  the  love 
of  civil  freedom  has  more  controlling  force  than 
papal  dictation.  These  are  in  a  position  of  per 
plexing  trial.  They  need,  and  arc  worthy  to 
receive,  a  double  portion  of  the  sympathy  and 
cordial  countenance  of  freedom's  less  embar 
rassed  friends. 

Whether  they  can  make  an  extract  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  church,  which  will  bear  any 
traceable  resemblance  to  the  original,  and  will 
yet  be  compatible  with  coexisting  and  cooperat 
ing  civil  democracy,  and  which  may  be  called 
papacy  Americanized,  remains  to  be  seen.  The 
probabilities  are  that  the  Eoman  Catholic  church 
is  too  deeply  and  durably  identified  with  tempo- 

21  241 


242  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

ral  and  spiritual  despotism  to  retain  a  cognizable 
lineament  of  its  former  self,  in  any  adapted  form, 
that  will  be  endurable  to  a  sincere  and  intelli 
gent  adherent  of  American  democracy. 

Roger  B.  Taney,  though  born  and  educated  a 
Romanist,  was  an  American  in  principle ;  and 
though  for  thirty  years  a  cooperator  with  those 
whose  plots  against  democracy  ripened  at  last 
into  overt  treason,  yet  it  was  his  friendship  for 
slave-holders,  and  not  his  love  of  the  papacy, 
that  made  him  such. 

Major  General  Wm.  S.  Rosecrans,  though  said 
to  have  been  led  by  a  professedly  Protestant 
chaplain  of  West  Point  Academy  into  the  papal 
communion,  has  not  yet  been  inoculated  with 
papal  politics,  or  induced  to  debase  the  native 
nobleness  of  his  nature,  or  abandon  the  dictates 
of  his  superior  judgment  for  the  behests  of  a 
polluted  and  suborned  ecclesiastical  authority. 
Would  that  we  knew  as  much  were  true  of  his 
younger  brother,  the  bishop !  Each  of  these 
represents  large  classes  entitled  to  our  kindest 
sympathy,  and  many  of  them  to  our  gratitude 
and  our  confidence,  in  whose  bosoms,  with  more 
or  less  consciousness  of  what  is  going  on,  the 
war  between  Democracy  and  Despotism  must 
rage  till  either  their  American  politics,  or  their 
Romish  religion,  is  given  to  the  winds.* 

*  See  Appendix  G. 


MEXICO  AND  SOUTH  AMERICA.        243 

But  what  of  the  French  in  Mexico  ?  The 
God  of  heaven  and  the  revelations  of  time 
alone  can  inform  us,  save  that  the  wearing 
anguish  of  perpetual  intestine  strife  appears 
likely  to  mark  the  future,  as  it  has  absorbed  the 
past,  of  that  unhappy  country.  The  papacy, 
and  not  slavery  has  there  been  and  still  is  the 
depository  of  despotic  principles  and  purposes 
The  leading  spirits  of  that  hoary  hierarchy  have 
ordained  and  ordered  the  forces  on  the  side  of 
despotism,  which  have  kept  the  portions  of  this 
continent,  south  of  the  United  States,  in  blood 
and  turmoil  ever  since  their  inhabitants  attained 
enough  of  freedom's  fire  to  throw  off  the  yoke 
of  Inquisitorial  Spain.  That  those  papal  agen 
cies  will  be  less  despotic,  or  less  disturbing,  now 
that  France  and  Austria  have  united  their  mate 
rial  military  and  naval  resources  in  their  support, 
is  not  to  be  expected.  The  forces  on  the  side  of 
freedom  in  those  latitudes  have  not  been  nour 
ished  and  guided,  as  in  the  North,  by  the  accept 
ed  light  and  strengthening  influence  of  divine 
Revelation,  and  hence  are  blind  and  feeble  com 
pared  with  the  Northern  adherents  of  freedom's 
cause.  But  that  they  will  die  out  quietly  under 
the  impact  of  the  iron  heel,  after  having  sus 
tained  themselves  under  every  disadvantage  for 
near  half  a  century,  is  hardly  to  be  expected ; 


214  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

although  the  blinding,  debasing  contact  of  the 
Romish  religion  is  vastly  more  efficient  to  over 
come  popular  resistance,  by  its  paralyzing,  fes 
tering,  infectious  corruptions,  than  any  monarchy 
is  to  overcome  such  resistance  by  military  force. 

That  the  brace  of  first-class  despots  who  have 
now  assumed  by  favor  of  the  papacy  to  preside 
over  the  destinies  of  Mexico  should  attempt  to 
amuse  themselves  and  divert  the  attention  of 
their  restive  subjects  by  bringing  on  in  that 
neighborhood  a  first-class  conflict  upon  the  stand 
ing  issue, —  Despotism  or  Democracy,  —  is  per 
haps  entirely  within  the  limits  of  probability. 

That  the  ruling  intellect  in  European  politics 
is  really  aiming  to  demolish  the  British  power, 
and,  as  preliminary  to  this,  with  Britain's  coun 
tenance  and  Britain's  aid,  intends  to  reduce  the 
United  States  to  a  condition  of  feebleness  which 
will  render  the  principal  undertaking  safe  ;  that 
the  continental  powers  are  now  being  conciliated 
and  combined  with  that  intent ;  that,  with  the 
same  intent,  secret  emissaries  are  inducing  Eng 
land,  under  an  ignored  queen  and  a  suborned  and 
dotaged  ministry,  to  launch,  equip,  and  sustain 
an  endless  succession  of  first-class  war  vessels, 
under  color  of  a  Rebel  flag  and  a  mocking  pre 
tence  of  neutrality,  to  threaten  the  ports  and 
prey  upon  the  commerce  of  the  United  States ; 


NAPOLEON'S  DESIGNS.  245 

that  the  hastily-assumed  and  equivocally-main 
tained  neutrality  of  France  and  England  was, 
with  the  same  intent,  designed  to  allow  this 
country,  as  far  as  possible,  to  exhaust  itself  in 
internal  strife,  preparatory  to  foreign  assault, — 
these  are  among  the  facts  of  current  history 
that  appear  to  be  fast  passing  from  the  stage  of 
occultation.*  What  the  hand  of  Death  or  Des 
tiny  may  do,  meanwhile,  to  mar  the  perfect- 
ness  or  still  the  activity  of  that  master  brain; 
what  the  liberty-loving  mass  in  its  home  em 
pire  may  do  to  derange  the  projects  of  foreign 
war ;  what  the  exasperated -  venom  of  the 
Mexican  races  may  yet  essay  and  achieve  to 
free  themselves  a  second  time  from  a  foreign 
yoke  and  groundless  usurpation, —  these  are  ele 
ments  which  time  alone  can  supply  for  a  cal 
culation  of  final  results.  But  that  all  which 

*  As  well  might  an  artist  attempt  to  fix  the  form  and  color  of  each  sum 
mer  cloud,  as  a  historian  to  note  the  desiyns  of  European  rulers.  After 
Louis  Napoleon  took  armed  possession  of  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  offered 
the  crown  of  a  conquered  empire  to  Maximilian,  the  Archduke  of  Austria, 
with  every  prospect  of  its  being  accepted,  but  a  few  weeks  elapsed  before, 
according  to  one  of  our  best  newspaper  authorities,  the  Austrian  Emperor 
found  himself  able  to  combine  a  European  alliance  against  Napoleon,  and 
the  offered  crown  was  rejected;  leaving  Mexico,  like  the  elephant  drawn  in 
a  lottery,  on  Napoleon's  hands,  to  be  retained,  or  disposed  of  as  best  it 
might.  Thus  brightening,  somewhat,  the  obvious  prospect  that  the  Ameri 
can  Union  would  yet  survive,  not  because  Europe's  despots  were  less  prin 
cipled  against  democracy,  but  because  the  scheme  their  late  leading  intel 
lect  had  concocted  for  giving  effect  to  their  common  principles  adverse  to 
democracy  had  been  frustrated  by  the  virulence  of  their  old  home  jeal- 
ouskw- 

21* 


246  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

the  foregoing  pages  contain,  respecting  a  des 
potism  upon  our  borders,  will  apply  to  the 
offshoot  of  the  French  empire  on  a  throne  in 
Mexico  is  undeniable;  although  the  boundary 
between  ourselves  and  Mexico  is  not  so  ut 
terly  impalpable  as  the  boundary  must  needs 
be  between  different  segments  of  the  severed 
Union ;  and  the  question  of  returning  fugi 
tive  slaves  would  not  be  likely  to  be  an  open 
ulcer  all  along  that  boundary  in  the  case  of  a 
despotism  in  Mexico,  as  it  would  be  in  the  case 
.of  a  slave-holding  despotism  on  the  soil  of  the 
former  Union. 


XLI. 

GENERAL   RESUME. 

have  now  completed  the  detailed  presen 
tation  of  the  chief  topics  intended  for  the  present 
work.  We  here  glance  over  them  collectively. 

The  passing  away  of  monarchy  involves  the 
greatest  change  to  which  human  society  is  liable. 
The  rise  and  establishing  of  popular  government 
is  a  delicate  and  exceedingly  critical  occurrence, 
peculiar  to  the  present  age  of  the  world.  It  is 
necessarily  opposed  by  all  that  remains  of  the 
dying  energies  of  hoary,  and  hitherto  unantago- 
nized,  coercive  government. 

Each  of  these  species  of  civil  society,  in  its 
nature,  tends  to  become  universal,  —  as  a  healthy 
specimen  of  animal  organization  tends  to  the 
attainment  of  its  normal  dimensions,  —  and  con 
suming  conflict  must  occur  on  every  border 
where  they  come  in  contact. 

This  continent  was  reserved  practically  vacant 
for  the  theatre  whereon  the  new  form  of  social 
life  —  "a  Church  without  a  Bishop,  and  a  State 
without  a  King"  —  should  take  its  rise. 

This  new  form  of  social  life  is  spontaneous  in 

24T 


248  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

its  origin,  continuance,  and  action.  It  is  little 
else  than  a  negative,  —  the  mere  absence  of 
monarchy  in  a  civilized  community,  with  barely 
latent,  organic  life  enough  to  render  that  absence 
perpetual.  Its  greatness,  its  importance,  its  prac 
tical  effects,  and  the  points  "  wherein  its  great 
strength  lieth,"  are,  to  the  present  time,  but 
very  imperfectly  understood.  The  unparalleled 
growth  and  affluence  of  this  nation  are  its  novel 
and  peculiar  product.  The  Constitution  of  these 
United  States  is  the  first  great,  permanent  ex 
pression  of  its  new  existence. 

Defended  by  surrounding  oceans,  —  which 
steam  and  electricity,  harnessed  by  the  inventive 
genius  which  its  own  generous  nourishings  de 
veloped,  had  not  yet  reduced  to  insignificance, — 
it  rose  to  maturity  and  strength  before  the  fam 
ily  of  ancient  monarchies  became  aware  of  its 
dangerous  antagonism;  and,  by  the  time  they 
began  to  take  alarm,  their  subject  millions  had 
become  so  permeated  with  the  leaven  of  its 
presence  as  to  paralyze  the  arm  with  which 
those  monarchies  would  otherwise  have  struck 
for  its  destruction. 

But  it  is  not  the  order  of  divine  procedure 
that  anything  designed  for  universal  spread  and 
perpetual  prevalence  should  rise  and  reign 
wholly  unresisted.  Like  the  hardy  oak,  this 


WHERE   SECESSION   BEGUN.  249 

new  form  of  civil  life  needed  a  trying  blast  to 
give  it  consistency  and  strength,  to  cause  its 
roots  to  strike  down  graspingly  beneath  the  sur 
face  soil,  and  to  purge  its  texture  from  the  ele 
ments  of  premature  decay. 

At  an  early  day  in  the  history  of  the  planting 
of  civilized  colonists  on  this  continent,  a  few 
ebon  seeds  of  African  social  life  —  than  which 
earth  has  produced  none  more  vicious  —  were 
transported,  and  planted  in  the  rich  soil  of  the 
watered  garden  of  American  freedom.  Here 
they  nestled  quietly  till  the  first  crisis  of  our 
nation's  birth  and  infant  feebleness  were  passed  ; 
all  the  time  multiplying  luxuriantly  and  combin 
ing  themselves  with  elements  of  power  which 
the  old  world  could  not  have  produced.  The 
sunshine  and  the  showers  of  this  most  peaceful 
and  prolific  clime  gave  them  colossal  proportions 
and  giant  strength.  Africa  supplied  the  servile 
mass,  and,  by  its  presence,  American  freemen, 
who  would  otherwise  have  scorned  to  exercise  an 
authority  to  which  they  would  not  themselves 
submit,  were  turned  into  masters,  tyrants,  des 
pots.  The  strongest,  most  vital,  most  excellent 
material  which  unfettered,  bounteous  America 
could  produce  became  quickened  with  the  en 
venomed  life  of  'the  darkest,  vilest  despotism 
that  ever  cursed  the  most  barren  and  remote 
extremity  of  the  Eastern  continent. 


250  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

Democracy,  which  affords  such  unexampled 
privileges  to  the  individual,  presents  the  lowest, 
least  organic  form  of  civil  life.  It  has  neither 
eyes  nor  ears  nor  any  other  sense  by  which  to 
take  alarm,  until  it  has  long  felt  the  pangs  of 
protracted  injury. 

The  viperous  despotism,  called  into  existence 
by  the  presence  of  that  abject  mass  from  Africa, 
had  already  taken  into  its  ravenous  maw,  digest 
ed,  and  incorporated  into  itself  the  whole  poor 
white  population  of  the  slave-holding  States  — 
had  broken  their  bones,  charmed  or  magnetized, 
and  slabbered  over,  ready  to  devour,  a  vast  polit 
ical  party  in  the  North,  —  part  of  whom,  like  the 
poor  whites  in  the  South,  prove  to  have  been  al 
ready  digested  and  appropriated, —  and  its  gory 
fangs  were  already  darted  at  the  carotid  artery 
of  our  nation's  life,  before  serious  alarm  was 
taken,  or  any  effort  made  in  national  self- 
defence. 


XLII. 

SKETCH   OF    EVENTS   INITIATING    THE    REVOLT. 

IN  approaching  some  conclusions  from  the 
preceding,  —  conclusions  bearing  on  our  future 
civil  duty  as  loyal  citizens,  —  the  connecting  of 
events  with  causes  will  not  be  avoided. 

Where  there  are  slaves,  there  must  be  mas 
ters.  Where  there  are  masters,  there  must, 
presently,  be  despots.  Wherever  there  is  a  des 
pot,  there  must  be  a  great  and  growing  sub 
mission  to  his  dictation,  or  else  there  ivill  be  ivar, 
one  or  the  other,  every  time  the  experiment 
is  tried,  "  now,  from  henceforth,  and  fo.rever- 
more." 

When,  by  the  rapid  influx  of  Northern  popu 
lation  into  California,  the  Southern  despots 
found  themselves  baffled  in  their  attempts  to 
add  that  State  to  their  peculiar  dominions,  they 
saw  that  the  time  was  drawing  near  at  which 
they  must  quietly  relinquish  their  usurped  con 
trol  of  the  general  government,  or  break  up  the 
Union.  Quietly  to  relinquish  usurped  power,  is 
one  thing  that  despots  never  do.  Popular  free- 

251 


252  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

dom  in  the  North  was  so  absorbing  the  influx  of 
foreign  immigration,  and  was  proving  itself  so 
prolific  of  all  that  constitutes  the  resources  of  a 
nation's  strength,  that  it  became  apparent  no 
time  was  to  be  lost.  They  were  fast  sinking 
into  a  powerless  minority.  Judging  others  by 
themselves,  they  knew  of  no  reason  why  the 
gross  abuses  of  power  which  they  and  their  po 
litical  coadjutors  had  been  practising  toward 
their  opponents  should  not  soon  be  practised 
back  on  themselves  in  turn. 

They  repealed  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and 
inaugurated  the  politico-military  strife  in  Kansas, 
with  some  hope  of  adding  that  State  to  their 
relatively  waning  minority ;  and  with  the  inten 
tion  of  turning  the  strife  into  a  general  civil 
war,  in  case  of  failure.  They  failed  in  both  the 
main  and  substitute  design.  The  "Yankees" 
were  too  shrewd  to  fight  while  the  general  gov 
ernment  was  yet  in  the  hands  of  their  antago 
nists.  Nothing  was  left  them  but  to  strike  for 
separation,  by  all  means,  and  at  all  hazards. 
Their  corrupted  partisans  at  the  North,  acting 
under  the  blasphemed  name  of  Democracy,* 
enabled  them  to  retain  usurped  control  of 
the  general  government  until  its  army  and 
navy  had  been  rendered  useless,  its  treasury 

*  Sea  Appendix  B. 


TREASON'S  CRISIS.  253 

robbed  and  bankrupted,  its  arsenals  rifled,  and 
all  but  two  of  its  fortifications  in  the  Southern 
States  clearly  within  their  reach.  The  hour  had 
come  for  decisive  action.  On  the  peaceable  sur 
render  of  these  two  forts  hung  the  momentous 
sequence  of  peace  or  war.  Thus  near  had  the 
Southern  despots  come  to  the  accomplishment 
of  the  first  great  act  in  their  programme,  —  sepa 
ration,  without  resorting  to  the  arbitrament  of 
the  sword.  All  this  had  been  accomplished  dur 
ing  the  administration  of  that  prince  of  Loco- 
focos,  James  Buchanan,  who  lay  in  the  hands  of 
his  Southern  advisers  as  a  pine-knot  lies  in  the 
maw  of  an  alligator,  till  everything  but  the  least 
digestible  part  of  its  woody  fibre,  has  been  ex 
tracted.  James  Buchanan,  who  had  done  every 
other  thing  that  the  Southern  despots  had  desired 
of  him,  did  not  actually  issue  orders  for  Forts 
Sumter  and  Pickens  to  surrender,  and  the  trai 
tors,  somewhat  unexpectedly,  found  these  two 
places  in  the  hands  of  men  who  did  not  see  fit 
to  surrender  them  unordered,  without  having  a 
fight  first.  As  Buchanan's  administration  drew 
near  its  close,  the  traitors,  —  with  whom  it  had 
been  the  main  business  of  his  term  to  cooper 
ate,  —  having  completed  all  that  they  could  ex 
pect  to  accomplish  covertly,  having  thrown  off 

disguise,  confessed  their  perjury,  (and,  in  "  seced- 
22 


254  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

ing,"  the  several  Southern  States  allowed  their 
real  character  and  design  to  become  appar 
ent,)  judged  it  prudent,  one  by  one,  to  resign 
their  offices,*  leave  the  capital,  and  go  South ; 
thus  leaving  the  old  knot  —  from  which  they 
lacked  the  chemistry  to  make  any  farther  ex 
tract,  and  which  still  represented  the  vital  head 
of  the  government  —  to  fall  into  other  hands. 
And  thus  the  nation  wras  stayed  up  from  falling 
to  pieces  through  Buchanan's  unfathomable  inef 
ficiency,  or  treason,  as  the  case  may  be. 

Had  Buchanan,  like  his  immediate  predeces 
sor,  been  subject  to  the  influence  of  strong  drink, 
probably  the  traitors  could  have  accomplished 
all  that  they  could  have  desired,  in  his  name, 
and  by  his  presidential  authority ;  and  the  com 
manders  of  Forts  Surnter  and  Pickens  would 
have  received  orders  to  evacuate.  But  when 
Buchanan  was  placed  in  nomination  as  the  presi 
dential  candidate  of  the  Loco-foco  party,  Fremont, 
the  opposing  candidate,  was  so  popular,  and  the 
accumulated  iniquities  of  the  party,  under  the 
then  existing  administration,  had  become  so 
enormous,  as  to  make  the  result  of  the  election 
extremely  doubtful ;  and,  in  order  to  secure  the 
vote  of  the  great  State  of  Pennsylvania,  it  be 
came  necessary  for  the  party  to  accept  her  fa 
vorite  son  as  their  candidate,  although  in  this 


WHAT  MOBS   ARE  FOR.  255 

respect  —  his  not  being  liable  to  be  influenced 
by  strong  drink  —  he  was  not  exactly  the  man 
that  was  suited  to  the  purpose  for  which  the  real 
leaders  of  the  party  designed  to  make  use  of 
him.  They  did  not  dare  to  restrain  him  of  his 
liberty,  and  carry  him  South  with  them,  because 
this  course  would  have  alienated  his  and  their 
political  coadjutors  of  the  Buchanan  stripe  in 
the  North. 

One  trait  of  the  despot,  peculiar  to  the  Amer 
ican  branch  of  that  family,  is,  that  when  he  has 
in  hand  an  enterprise  which  he  likes  not  to  at 
tempt  himself,  by  personal  violence,  he  has  a 
way  of  raising  a  mob  of  the  worthless  and  the 
desperate,  to  carry  out  his  plans  for  him.  It 
appears  to  be  a  part  of  their  regular  policy,  by 
the  absence  of  schools,  and  the  discouragement 
of  regular  industrial  avocations  for  whites,  to 
keep  on  hand  a  class  of  this  kind  of  characters, 
for  such  particular  occasions.  This  mode  of 
action  gives  additional  plausibility  to  their  pre 
tence  of  being  Democrats.  Some  of  the  most 
important  transactions  in  the  process  of  seceding 
the  Southern  States  were  carried  through  by 
this  mode  of  operating. 

But  twice  in  the  interim  between  the  presi 
dential   terms   of  Jackson   and   Buchanan,   has 


256  NATURAL  HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

their  party  failed  to  elect  its  presidential  candi 
date.  And  neither  of  these  two  only  successful 
candidates  who  opposed  that  party  survived  his 
inauguration  more  than  a  few  weeks  or  months, 
before  he  fell  in  death,  —  a  victim,  as  the  people, 
in  their  democratic  simplicity  supposed,  of  ordi 
nary  disease. 

Sure,  one  there  was,  who  suspected  foul  play 
in  the  first  of  these  instances,  and  who  never 
doubted  it  in  the  second.  And  now,  viewing 
the  cases  of  sudden  demise,  so  opportune  for 
the  party  which  was  aided  by  them,  in  the  light 
of  their  immense  importance  to  the  plans  which 
have  since  been  developed,  and  in  the  light  of 
the  means  which  have  since  been  resorted  to  by 
their  authors,  to  carry  these  plans  into  execu 
tion,  no  candid  mind,  competent  to  comprehend 
the  evidence  in  the  case,  can  doubt  but  that  the 
deaths  of  those  presidents  in  office  were  pro 
cured  by  a  quiet  mode  of  assassination.  Presidents 
Harrison  and  Taylor  were  the  only  two  who 
ever  died  in  office,  and  were  the  only  two  who 
succeeded  in  interrupting  the  reign  of  that  party 
dynasty,  whose  otherwise  unbroken  prevalence 
for  thirty  years  has  matured  in  the  scenes  of 
treason,  desolation,  and  blood,  that  now  crush 
our  afflicted  land. 

But  aside  from  the  connection  in  which  the 


AMERICAN  DESPOTISM.  257 

attempt  stands  catalogued,  it  is  matter  of  noto 
rious  history  that  a  band  was  leagued,  and  a 
mob  prepared,  to  waylay  and  dispose  of  the 
present  chief  magistrate  of  the  nation  as  he 
approached  the  capitol  for  inauguration ;  at  the 
same  time  beleaguering  that  city  and  cutting 
off  communication  from  the  North,  taking  pos 
session  of  the  city  of  Baltimore,  and  forcing  the 
State  of  Maryland  out  of  the  Union. 

Despots  of  the  American  type  are  accustomed 
to  succeed  in  whatever  they  think  it  worth  their 
effort  seriously  to  attempt.  When  they  fail,  it 
is  generally  safe  to  conclude  that  no  subtlety, 
however  acute,  no  watchfulness,  however  unre 
mitting,  no  code  of  morals,  however  lax,  no  ap 
plication,  however  assiduous,  no  exertion,  how 
ever  desperate,  and  no  scheme,  however  diaboli 
cal,  could  have  secured  success.  The  fierceness 
of  the  throes  of  dying  despotism  consume  the 
fountains  of  whatever  is  just  or  gentle  in  the 
individual  supporters  of  that  doomed  cause. 

22* 


XLIII. 

SEPARATION  OF  THE  DESPOTIC  FROM  THE  DEMOCRATIC  ELE 
MENTS  IX  THE  LONG-DOMINANT  PARTY — CONDITIONS  OF 
PEACE. 

BY  moving  with  celerity  on  an  unusual  line 
of  travel,  the  President  elect  arrived  in  Wash 
ington  unassassinated,  unseized.  President  Bu 
chanan,  in  the  new  hands  into  which  he  had 
fallen  when  the  traitors  let  him  drop,  even  fa 
vored  the  peaceful  inauguration  of  his  lawfully- 
elected  successor;  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  duly  and 
peaceably  inaugurated  at  the  usual  time,  though 
in  the  presence  of  an  efficient  military  guard. 

Thus  the  shattered  and  almost  extinguished 
remnant  of  the  United  States  government  passed 
from  the  usurping  grasp  of  the  political  party 
which,  headed  and  handled  by  a  few  slave-hold 
ing  despots,  had  used  that  government  for  their 
own  selfish  and  sinister  purposes,  witti  little  in 
terruption,  for  the  last  thirty  years;  and,  during 
the  last  eight  of  these  years,  with  the  scarcely 
disguised  intention  of  compassing  its  destruc 
tion. 

This  relinquishment  of  power  was  not  at  this 

268 


PARTY   SPLIT  DESIGNED.  259 

time  necessary,  but  voluntary,  at  least  on  the 
part  of  leaders  of  that  long-dominant  party. 
They  supposed  they  had  effectually  destroyed 
the  power,  and  were  relinquishing  only  the  shad 
ow  of  its  form.  They  little  doubted  that  their 
party  adherents  in  the  North  were  so  thoroughly 
corrupted,*  and  that  the  Middle  States  would 
find  themselves  so  distracted,  that  they  who  laid 
and  launched  the  plot,  with  the  extreme  South 
already  under  their  undisputed  despotism,  could 
dispose  of  the  rest  at  pleasure ;  at  least,  could 
cast  them  off  at  will,  and  by  the  aid  of  their 
friends,  the  despotic  classes  in  Europe,  could  es 
tablish  a  concentrated  government  that  would 
defy  reaction. 

On  the  23d  of  April,  1860,  the  Convention  of 
the  long-dominant  party  met  at  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  to  select  a  candidate  to  be  voted 
for  by  the  party,  as  Mr.  Buchanan's  successor. 
The  leaders  of  that  party,  there  assembled,  con 
trolled  the  majority — almost  the  entire  vote — of 
every  Southern  State  except  a  trifling  defection 
on  the  border,  and  they  controlled  enough  of 
the  Northern  States  to  make  the  election  of 
their  candidate  reasonably  certain,  had  they 
chosen  to  harmonize  and  act  together  as  form 
erly.  A  few  formal  compliments,  paid  by  the 

*•  See  Appendix  C. 


260*  NATURAL   BISTORT   OF   SECESSION. 

Southern  despots  to  prominent  Northern  parti 
sans,  would  have  secured  this  harmony,  and 
another  Frank  Pierce  or  James  Buchanan  could 
have  been  made  president.  But  such  was  not 
the  result  desired.  One  Frank  Pierce,  succeeded 
by  one  James  Buchanan,  had  accomplished  all 
that  the  Southern  despots  had  for  such  men  to 
do,  namely,  to  put  the  country  in  a  state  of 
complete  preparedness  for  dissolution.  The  des 
potic  principles  and  tastes  of  the  Southrons  had 
become  matured.  They  could  no  longer  endure 
a  fettering  combination  with  even  corrupt,  ve 
nal,  traitorous,  or  deceived  Democracy.*  If  their 
Northern  friends  would  join  them  and  arm  for  a 
consuming  conflict  with  the  mother  of  repub 
lics,  \vell  and  good.  If  they  would  go  home, 
and  in  the  several  wards  and  counties  manfully 
resist  all  efforts  to  arrest  the  movements  about 
to  be  entered  on  in  the  South,  this  service 
would  also  be  very  acceptable.  But  the  unnat 
ural  and  mutually-loathed  union  of  despotism 
and  democracy  that  had  prevailed  ever  since 

*  Robert  Toombs  publishes  a  letter  in  a  Georgia  paper,  saying,  —  "I  can 
conceive  of  no  extremity  to  which  my  country  could  be  reduced  in  which  I 
would  for  a  single  moment  entertain  any  proposition  for  any  union  with  the 
North  on  any  terms  whatever.  When  all  else  is  lost,  I  prefer  to  unite  with 
the  thousands  of  our  own  countrymen  who  have  found  honorable  deaths,  if 
not  graves, on  the  battle-field"  As  Mr.  Toombs  is  a  favorite  among  the 
peace  men  of  the  North,  it  might  be  well  that  they  make  a  note  of  his  sen 
timents.  —  Boston  Journal,  September  Uth,  1668. 


WHY  THE   PARTY  WAS  SPLIT.  261 

the  rise  of  the  cotton-trade  infused  vitality  and 
strength  into  the  slave  system  was  now  drawing 
near  its  termination.  The  set  time  for  launch 
ing  a  plot  for  its  dissolution  had  arrived.  The 
old  Jackson-Buchanan,  or  " loaves-and-fishes "  par 
ty  as  it  was  termed  by  an  early  critic  of  its 
course,  had  answered  well  its  end  ;  but,  like  the 
typical  dispensation  in  religion,  at  the  coming 
of  the  great  Antitype,  was  to  pass  away,  or  lin 
ger  out  an  anomalous  and  effete  existence,  op 
posed  alike  to  the  clear  light  and  decisive  action 
of  the  two  great  political  verities,  which,  like 
Paganism  and  Christianity,  were  thenceforth  to 
divide  the  field  between  them,  till  the  one  or 
the  other  became  extinct. 

The  separation  of  the  two  great  elements 
must  of  necessity  take  place  in  the  long-domi 
nant  party,  as  well  as  in  the  government  proper. 
As  the  sundering  of  the  party  did  not  involve 
the  crime  of  perjury  or  treason,  and  would  not 
necessitate  war,  it  was  resolved  to  initiate  the 
grand  separation  in  that  party,  and  the  Conven 
tion  at  Charleston  was  selected  as  the  occasion 
for  doing  it.  The  plan  was,  by  preventing  unity 
of  action,  to  necessitate  a  plurality  of  candi 
dates,  a  division  of  the  party  vote,  and  the  con 
sequent  success  of  the  opposing  candidate,  who, 
as  the  South  were  a  unit  in  the  hands  of  their 


262  NATUKAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

leaders,  must  of  necessity  be  a  sectional  candi 
date,  elected  by  a  combination  of  sectional  par 
ties, —  this  sectional  feature  must  perfect  and 
insure  the  Southern  political  unanimity,  —  then 
make  war  on  the  successful  candidate,  whoever 
he  might  be,  before  or  after  his  inauguration, 
as  chance  might  offer. 

The  separation  in  the  party,  then  and  there, 
took  place  according  to  the  design  and  purpose 
of  the  despot  Southrons.  They  refused  longer 
to  consult  the  interests  or  to  conserve  the  wel 
fare  of  the  party.  In  vain  the  Northern  mem 
bers  of  the  party  offered  a  continuance  of  their 
venal  services.  They  were  rejected.  The  sep 
aration  was  so  natural,  fit,  and  timely,  —  espe 
cially  since  the  Secession  of  the  States  it  has  ap 
peared  so, —  that  any  effort  to  restore  the  party- 
union  has  been  as  unnatural  and  monstrous  as 
would  be  the  attempt  to  reverse  the  operation 
of  nature  in  animal  propagation,  and  endeavor 
to  restore  the  breathing  offspring  to  its  former 
union  with  the  parent  from  which  it  had  been 
separated.  The  union  of  slave-mastership  and 
the  policy  of  the  Jackson-Buchanan  party  pro 
duced  Secession  by  a  process  that  admits  not  of 
being  reversed. 

If  such  be  the  case  with  the  political  party 
that  so  long  held  the  government  in  its  custody 


CONDITION   OF   REUNION.  263 

that  the  two  almost  became  one,  what  ground,  it 
will  be  asked,  is  there  to  hope  that  the  union  of 
the  States  can  ever  be  restored  ?  There  is  no 
ground  for  such  a  hope,  not  the  slightest,  so 
long  as  Despotism  rules  the  South  or  any  other 
portion  of  the  States.  The  first  and  only,  the 
indispensable  and  all-sufficient,  condition  of  a 
restitution  of  the  Union  of  the  States  in  perpet 
ual  harmony,  is  a  revolution  of  the  South  from 
despotism  to  democracy.  All  the  fighting  which 
the  present  War  has  produced  or  may  yet  pro 
duce,  that  brings  near  this  result,  advances  us 
by  legitimate  progress  toward  the  attainment 
of  permanent  peace.  All  that  fails  of  bringing 
near  this  result,  is  gratuitous  self-inflicted  chas 
tisement.  It  may  make  us  more  wise  and  mod 
est,  but  in  no  other  way  than  this  can  it  have 
any  special  tendency  to  terminate  the  strife. 


XLIY. 

CONDITIONS    INDISPENSABLE     TO     PEACE,    AND     PROGRESS    TO 
WARD    THEIR    ATTAINMENTS. 

AMONG  the  popular  masses  at  the  South,  the 
absence  of  sagacity  to  perceive,  and  of  courage 
and  promptitude  to  resist,  the  usurpations  of  a 
military  despotism  at  the  commencement  of 
their  secession  movement  proves  those  masses 
to  be  devoid  of  democratic  principle,  and  radi 
cally  conformed  to  the  condition  of  the  subject 
masses  of  a  despotism.*  Are  their  despotic  lead 
ers  so  secure  in  the  rear  that  they  can  be  reach 
ed  only  by  the  military  destruction  of  these 
masses  ?  Are  these  masses  so  devoted  to  their 
leaders  that  they  will  not  consent  to  survive 
them  ?  If  either  of  these  conditions  obtain  (and 
they  really  are  but  one),  then  must  the  war  go 
on  with  unabated  destructiveness  till  the  South 
is  wellnigh  consumed,  and  the  North  shall  have 
paid  in  full  the  meet  penalty  for  having  allowed 
a  despotic  corrupting  of  the  half  of  its  own 
home  population,  and  for  according  the  unction 

*  For  a  vivid  and  veracious  description  of  the  process  of  seceding,  see 
The  Conspiracy  Unveiled.      Hunaicutt.     Philadelphia.     J.   B.  Lippincott 

&  Co.,  1863. 

Ml 


THE  WAR  NECESSARY.  265 

of  its  tolerance  and  the  shield  of  national  pro 
tection  to  the  deadly  asp  of  Despotism,  till  its 
own  life's  blood  had  well-nigh  paid  the  forfeit  in 
curred  by  its  indolent  credulity. 

In  view  of  the  enormous  cost  and  suffering 
which  this  war  is  inflicting,  North  and  South,  it 
may  be  asked  whether  prompt  decisive  action, 
at  its  origin,  could  not  have  arrested  and  hung 
its  authors,  and  have  left  the  Southern  as  well 
as  the  Northern  masses  undecimated  and  the 
homes  of  the  form?r  undevastated.  Decisive 
governmental  action  could  probably  have  ar 
rested  the  leaders  of  revolt,  and  thereby  have 
prevented  the  progress  of  the  present  war ;  but 
this  would  have  been  only  a  perilous  postpone 
ment, —  a  damming  up  of  a  river  that  would 
only  have  increased  its  strength  and  fury,  as 
long  as  the  cause  continued  to  act  which  made 
despots  of  the  leaders  of  this  revolt.  Though 
the  Southern  people  had  been  spared  their  pres 
ent  sufferings,  the  same  causes,  continuing  to 
act,  would  soon  produce  and  place  at  their  head 
a  set  of  leaders  more  despotic  and  desperate 
than  those  who  are  now  consigning  them  to 
wholesale  immolation. 

If  a  bloody  or  a  bloodless  revolution  could 
have  been  instituted  in  the  South,  that  would 
have  brought  the  seven  and  three-fourths  mil- 


266  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

lions  of  non-slave-holding  white  population  in 
successful  conflict  with  the  despot  few,  who  now 
govern  that  section  with  a  rod  of  iron,  the  pres 
ent  war  would  have  been  averted.  But  such 
was  the  amount  of  power  which  slavery  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  despot  few,  —  such  was 
the  disadvantage  at  which  slavery  placed  the 
seven  and  three-fourths  millions  of  non-slave- 
holding  whites,  —  above  all,  such  was  the  vassal 
sympathy  with  the  ruling  few,  into  which  these 
non-slave-holding  millions  were  brought  by  their 
chronic  fear  and  hate  of  slaves  set  free,  that 
nothing  but  a  war  which  prostrates  alike  the 
despot  leader  and  his  millions  of  abject  whites 
can  ever  clear  the  soil  for  the  planting  of  a  gen 
uine  democracy.  Nothing  less  than  the  suffer 
ing  and  humiliation  which  this  war  is  inflicting 
on  the  North  could  have  brought  its  corrupted 
majority  to  consent  to  the  establishing  of  that 
degree  of  political  equality  at  the  South  which 
is  indispensable  to  the  continued  existence  of 
democratic,  or,  in  common  terms,  republican 
institutions  on  this  continent. 

The  question  here  intrudes  itself,  Must  ne 
groes  vote  ?  It  is  impossible  to  precalculate  at 
what  time  the  elective  franchise  will  become  of 
any  practical  value  to  them  ;  or  at  what  time  it 
will  be  best  for  us  that  they  should  exercise  it 


NEGRO    ELEVATION.  267 

Where  there  is  no  compression,  there  can  be  no 
explosion.  Where  there  is  an  arbitrary  depriva 
tion  of  the  practically  valuable  rights,  which,  by 
the  equal  .rule  of  democratic  government,  per 
tain  to  any  class,  then  and  there  comes  into  ex 
istence  a  reacting,  explosive  force.  This  force, 
perpetually  conflicting  with  the  original,  arbi 
trary,  depriving  dictation,  the  two  mutually  irri 
tate  and  strengthen  each  other  till  an  explosive 
revolutionary  outbreak  is  the  result. 

The  premature  conferring  of  elective  fran 
chise  on  an  abject  race,  as  the  negroes  now  are, 
and  must  long  be,  would  only  reproduce  and 
multiply  ten  thousand  fold  the  corrupting  and 
disastrous  results  of  conferring  that  franchise 
on  the  green,  ignorant,  and  politically  unprinci 
pled  serfs  that  throng  to  us  from  the  shores  of 
monarchical  Europe. 

The  prospect  of  thereby  weakening  the  mil 
itary  strength  of  the  Rebellion,  together  with 
the  pressing  menace  of  European  powers,  which 
could  thereby  be  parried,  appear  to  have  induced 
Mr.  Lincoln  to  proclaim  emancipation  to  the 
greater  part  of  the  Southern  slaves.*  The  dem 
onstrated  impracticability  of  his  schemes  of  de 
porting  the  freed  negroes,  the  difficulty  of  sup 
plying  his  lack  of  troops,  and  the  nnhealthiness 

*  See  Appendix  A. 


268  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

of  many  of  the  locations  where  troops  were 
necessary  to  be  used,  seem  to  have  induced  the 
tardy  determination  to  arm  the  negroes. 

But,  whatever  may  have  been  the  motive 
which  induced  the  course  of  action,  the  first 
efficient  step  taken  toward  preserving  the  gov 
ernment  from  the  assault  made  on  it  from  the 
South  was  the  abolishing  of  masters,*  brought 
about  by  emancipating  the  slaves  ;  and  the  first 
step  taken  toward  preventing  a  recurrence  of 

*  Though  there  may  be  men  and  women  in  the  ranks  of  those  partisans 
of  treason  who  are  voting  against  President  Lincoln's  administration,  who 
are  ignorant,  and  hence  partially  innocent,  of  the  real  aim  of  their  party- 
leaders,  yet,  beyond  dispute,  that  aim  is,  singly  and  solely,  by  all  possible 
means,  to  prevent  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  from  taking  effect. 
Thereby  redeeming  the  institution  of  slavery  from  the  boiling,  burning  gulf 
into  which  its  Southern  possessors  had  thrown  it,  restoring  the  Loco-foco  or 
ganization,  with  all  the  Southern  slave-holders  gratefully  owing  their  preser 
vation  to  their  Northern  friends.  To  accomplish  this  result,  all  the  infernal 
zeal  that  can  be  expended,  all  the  .falsification  of  facts  and  principles  that 
may  be  necessary,  and  the  blood  and  treasure  requisite  for  two  or  three 
years'  prolongation  of  the  war,  appear  to  be  a  moderate  price,  in  the  estima 
tion  of  these  precious  graduates  of  the  political  school  in  which  they  have 
been  educated.  "  To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils." 

Reuben  Stout,  60th  Indiana  Infantry,  was  shot  on  Johnson's  Island  for 
desertion.  He  was  allowed  to  go  home  on  furlough.  In  a  confession,  made 
just  before  his  death,  he  says:  — 

"  After  I  had  been  there  about  two  weeks,  I  was  advised  by  several  per 
sons  not  to  go  back  to  the  army;  they  said  this  was  only  an  'Abolition 
war.'  I  was  induced  to  go  to  a  meeting  of  the  so-called  Knights  of  the 
Golden  Circle,  and  was  made  a  member  of  that  organization.  The  obliga 
tions  of  the  order  bound  us  to  do  all  we  could  against  the  war,  —  to  resist 
the  draft,  if  one  should  be  made,  and  likewise  to  resist  and  oppose  all  confis 
cation  or  emancipation  measures,  in  every  possible  way.  We  were  pledged 
to  do  r.ll  we  could  to  prevent  another  man  or  dollar  going  from  the  State  for 
the  further  prosecution  of  the  war." 

When  a  squad  attempted  to  arrest  him  he  killed  one  of  the  party 


EFFECT  OF  NEGRO  ELEVATION.         269 

the  same  assault  was  conferring  manhood  and 
elevation  of  character  on  the  blacks,  by  admit 
ting  them  into  the  army  ranks,  to  fight  for  their 
own  independence.  Failing  of  either  of  these 
two  necessary  steps,  the  present  war  might  have 
continued  to  the  end  of  time  without  producing 
any  decisive  result  in  favor  of  the  Union  cause. 
And  now,  if  through  their  Northern  confeder 
ates,  the  Secessionists  can  succeed  in  reversing 
either  of  these  measures  of  President  Lincoln's 
administration,  they  have  a  fair  prospect  of  be 
ing  the  ultimate  winners,  however  the  tide  of 
victory  may  turn  in  the  field. 

If  the  negroes  prove  to  be  so  effectually  freed, 
and  so  far  elevated  above  their  former  condition, 
that  no  class  of  men  can  again  make  political 
use  of  them  as  their  former  masters  have  hith 
erto  done,  doubtless  the  masses  of  the  Southern 
whites,  freed  from  their  former  ^trammels,  and 
from  the  powerful  presence  of  the  slave-holding 
class,  will  adequately  educate  themselves  and 
put  on  democracy  spontaneously.  Especially 
may  this  result  be  expected,  when  free  inter 
communication  with  the  North  shall  have  been 
established. 


XLV. 

THE  STATE  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  MASSES — THE  DEMONSTRATED 
AIM  OF  THEIR  LEADERS  —  INEVITABLE  RESULTS  OF  SEP 
ARATION. 

LET  us  now  attempt  to  gather  into  focal 
proximity  the  leading  phenomena  of  Seces 
sion. 

Apart  from  their  blind  and  mad  affection  for 
the  condensed  despotism  which  slavery  presents, 
and  their  cringing,  suicidal,  though  unconscious, 
servility  to  the  leading  conservators  of  this  des 
potism,  the  non-slave-holding  millions  of  white 
population  in  the  South  had  no  motive,  and 
could  have  had  no  inclination,  to  engage  in  the 
present  onslaught  against  the  United  States 
government. 

The  victory  now  being  contended  for  by  the 
Southern  leaders  is  a  victory  over  democratic 
equality,  democratic  principles,  and  democratic 
institutions,  and  is  as  much  against  the  rights, 
prosperity,  and  prospects  of  the  masses  of  the 
people  at  the  South  as  at  the  North.  And  noth 
ing  but  the  arts  and  coercive  power  peculiar 
to  successful  despots  ever  placed  those  South- 

270 


AIM   OF  SECESSION.  271 

ern  masses  in  the  ranks  of  the  slave-holders' 
army,  or  still  retains  them  there. 

Some  light  is  thrown  on  the  real  nature  and 
aim  of  Secession  —  an  aim  and  a  nature  which 
must  fashion  its  future,  if  it  succeeds  in  prolong 
ing  its  existence  —  by  the  fact  that  its  authors, 
and  those  in  behalf  of  whom  these  authors  act, 
prior  both  to  the  inception  and  execution  of 
their  nefarious  plan,  were  in  the  secure  posses 
sion  of  every  right,  privilege,  and  power  which 
democracy  could  either  confer  or  permit,  and 
more.  They  possessed  every  right,  privilege,  and 
power  they  or  any  other  set  of  sane  men  in  their 
places  could  desire  or  ask,  except  the  privilege 
and  power  of  making  war  and  concluding  peace 
on  their  own  sole,  unadvised,  unembarrassed 
motion,  and  of  adding  to  the  millions  of  their 
slaves  at  pleasure,  by  importation  or  conquest. 
This  evinces  to  a  demonstration  that  the  true 
and  real  aim  of  the  authors,  the  leaders,  and  the 
champions  of  the  Secession  movement  is  no 
other  than  to  divide  their  despotism  from  its  for 
mer  incongruous,  embarrassing  copartnership 
with  democracy,  —  to  place  it  on  a.  basis  of  its 
own,  free  to  pursue  its  own  peculiar  aims  and 
tendencies,  by  its  own  peculiar  modes  of  action. 

In  doing  this,  they  are  sure  that  the  iron  or 
ganization,  and  the  solitary,  changeless  head  of 


272  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

despotism,  will  give  them  incalculable  advantage 
over  the  loose  and  changeable  executive  of  a 
democracy,  in  the  interminable  wars  that  must 
necessarily  follow  the  achievement  of  separation. 
They  are  also  sure  that  a  despotism  can  always 
surround  itself  with  its  native  element, —  a  state 
of  war, —  and  that  this  is  so  adverse  to  its  antago 
nist,  that,  as  a  democracy,  though  physically 
unconquered,  it  must  eventually  perish  wherever 
this  element  permanently  prevails. 

Slavery  is  known  and  admitted  to  be  the  cor 
ner-stone  of  the  new  government  to  be  reared 
on  the  Southern  fragment  of  the  divided  Union.* 

The  strong  and  growing  determination  of  the 
Northern  Democrats,  after  the  rupture  of  the 
obligations  that  have  hitherto  bound  them,  never 
again  to  become  the  ministers  or  the  menials  of 
a  despot  in  controlling  his  refractory  slaves,  is 
perfectly  known,  and  matter  that  may  be  pre- 
calculated  on. 

The  fact  that  Southern  slaves  will  be  constantly 
fleeing  to  the  North  for  protection  and  freedom 
is  also  a  matter  in  respect  to  which  there  is  no 
doubt  or  uncertainty,  in  case  a  slave-holding 
government  ever  stands  by  itself  on  Southern 
soil. 

*See  speech  of  Alexander  H.  Stephens  (Vice-President  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  as  he  is  called).  George  Livermore's  Historical  Research. 
A.  Williams  &  Company.  Boston:  1863.  p.  4. 


DESIGNS   ON  THE   NORTH.  273 

We  have,  then,  the  inevitable  conclusion,  that 
the  men  who  are  striving  to  establish  this  slave- 
holding  kingdom  in  the  South  depend  for  its 
continuance  on  perpetual  military  success,  sur 
veillance  of  the  North,  and  such  an  extended  ap 
plication  of  their  present  policy  of  "retaliation  "  * 
as  will  compel  the  ever  unwilling  democrats  of 
the  Northern  fragment  of  our  former  nation,  to 
guarantee  the  integrity  of  their  slave  system. 
By  how  much  this  state  of  things  will  fall  short 
of  the  military  subjugation  of  the  North,  it  is 
worth  little  time  or  trouble  to  calculate.  And 
how  much  is  to  be  done  by  the  Northern  parti 
sans  of  the  Southern  despots,  in  bringing  about 
this  state  of  compulsory  vassalage, —  in  substi 
tuting  the  former  voluntary  cooperative  Union, 

*  It  is  reported  that  the  Rebels,  in  view  of  an  immediate  bombardment  of 
Charleston,  have  removed  all  the  Union  prisoners  taken  at  Morris  Island 
and  Sumter  to  that  city,  and  also  that  prisoners  have  been  sent  from  Rich 
mond  that  they  may  be  exposed  to  the  danger  of  the  bombardment.— 
Journal. 

BALTIMORE,  Oct.  30.  The  American  has  a  letter  from  a  responsible 
correspondent  dated  Annapolis,  Md.,  29th,  which  says  the  flag  of  truce  boat 
New  York  arrived  at  the  Naval  School  Wharf  this  morning  from  City  Point, 
•with  160  paroled  men;  eight  of  the  number  died  on  the  boat  on  its  way 
here. 

They  actually  starved  to  death.  Never,  in  the  whole  course  of  my  life, 
have  I  seen  such  a  scene  as  there  was  presented.  They  were  living  skele 
tons.  Eveiy  man  of  them  had  to  be  sent  to  the  hospital,  and  the  surgeon's 
opinion  is  that  more  than  one-third  will  die,  being  beyond  the  reach  of 
nourishment  or  medicine.  I  questioned  several  of  them,  and  all  state  that 
their  condition  has  been  brought  on  by  the  treatment  they  have  received  at 
the  hands  of  the  Rebels.  They  have  been  kept  without  food,  and  exposed 
a  large  part  of  the  time  without  shelter  of  any  kind. 


274  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

by  a  severed  state,  and  a  compelled  rendering 
of  such  subordinate  help  as  is  indispensable  to 
the  preservation  of  their  slave  property,  —  is 
also  unimportant,  and  of  no  modifying  influence 
on  the  final  result.  The  bitterness  of  final  mili 
tary  subjugation  will  be  little  alleviated  by  the 
reflection  that  the  Southern  despots,  who"  im 
posed  it,  could  not  have  succeeded  without  the 
aid  of  corrupted  and  traitorous  partisans  in  our 
in  ids  t.* 

*  There  is  something  damningly  dishonest  in  the  professions  and  the  prac 
tices  of  those  Northern  men,  of  the  Vallandigham,  Wood,  and  Seymour 
school,  who  are  unfriendly  to  the  United  States  government  as  now  admin 
istered,  and  yet  refuse  to  put  their  necks  directly  under  the  yoke  that  Jeff. 
Davis  is  imposing  on  the  people  of  his  realm.  They  are,  obviously,  aiming 
to  barter  their  countrymen,  and  their  country,  to  that  modern  Nero,  for 
positions  near  the  throne  which  he  is  wading  through  "  blood  to  the  horses' 
bridles"  to  establish. 


XLVI. 

CONCLUDING     REFLECTIONS  —  THE     CONTEMPLATED     COST    OP 

THE     REBELLION THE     AIM     THIS     COST    WAS    FITTED     TO 

SUBSERVE  —  RIGHT-MINDED  MEN  AT  FAULT  THE  NO- 
PUNISHMENT  CLASS —  ABUSE  OF  THE  TERM  DEMOCRATIC  — 
DISJOINTING  THE  SOUTHERN  MASSES  FROM  THEIR  DES 
POTIC  LEADERS. 

SOMETHING  more  than  appears  at  first  view  can 
be  learned  respecting  the  true  nature  and  aims 
of  Secession,  by  looking  at  the  deliberate  sacri 
fices  by  which  its  authors,  from  the  first,  pro 
posed  to  attain  their  ends. 

When  we  look  at  the  movement  in  the  light 
of  these  sacrifices,  their  extent,  their  deliberate- 
ness,  the  unreserved  freedom  with  which  they 
are  offered,  and  the  comparative  insignificance 
and  doubtful  worth  of  the  proposed  returns,  — 
it  may  almost  be  doubted  whether  the  move 
ment  had  really  any  other  motive  than  a  dispo 
sition,  on  the  part  of  its  authors,  to  destroy 
everything  that  they  had  the  opportunity  and 
the  power  to  reach  and  ruin. 

The  first  great  item  in  this  bill  of  sacrifices  is, 
our  nationality.  It  was  held  in  common  by  North 
and  South.  It  had  a  history,  radiant  with  the 

275 


276  NATJRAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

wisdom  and  prowess  of  our  common  patriot  sires. 
It  had  a  prospective  future,  glowing  with  a  gor- 
geousness  of  promise  almost  beyond  belief. 
Though  young  in  years,  and  novel  in  the  polit 
ical  basis  on  which  it  rose,  it  had  attained  a 
respectability  and  influence  abroad  which  we 
would  have  exchanged  with  no  other  nation. 
It  was  unconquerable  by  any  external  force 
that  could  be  brought  against  it.  An  easy 
exercise  of  its  military  strength  was  sufficient  to 
defend  and  vindicate  the  rights  of  itself  and  of 
its  citizen,  wherever  threatened.  The  benefits 
it  conferred  on  its  citizens  at  home  were  more 
ample,  rich,  and  costless  than  had  ever  before 
been  conferred  by  any  human  government.  It 
made  our  country  the  desired  home  and  refuge 
of  the  oppressed  of  every  land.  It  was  -the 
beacon-light  of  popular  liberty  to  a  tyrant-ridden 
world.  Add  to  these  considerations  the  unutter 
able  affection  with  which  every  virtuous  patriot 
cleaves  to  the  institutions,  as  well  as  to  the  soil, 
of  his  native  land,  and  multiply  the  sum  by  the 
tens  of  millions  of  its  blessed  and  contented 
population.  All  this  is  utterly  and  certainly 
destroyed  by  the  first  act  of  the  purposed  sepa 
ration.  Large  fragments  of  the  ruin  may, ,  or 
may  not,  remain  ;  may,  or  may  not,  retain  some 
traces  of  the  great  original ;  no  one  knows, 


PECUNIARY   COST   OP  THE  WAR.  277 

and,  of  all  others,  no  one  appears  to  care  less 
than   the  Secessionist,  how  this  may  be. 

To  the  destruction  of  our  nationality  add  the 
individual  pecuniary  sacrifice  at  which  this  War 
has  hitherto  been,  and  is  yet  to  be,  carried  on. 
Nine  hundred  millions  of  dollars  is  the  computed 
war  debt  of  the  Union  government  at  the  end 
of  the  first  two  years  of  war.  Add  to  this  the 
millions  that  have  been  raised  by  war-tax,  the 
many  millions  that  have  been  voluntarily  con 
tributed  for  hospital  and  other  necessary  war 
expenses,  the  loss  of  income  suffered  by  abstract 
ing  an  average  of  nearly  a  million  and  a  half 
of  Northern  men  from  their  customary  indus 
trial  avocations,  add  a  proportionate  outlay  for 
the  remaining  years  of  the  War,  of  whatever 
number  they  may  be,  and  you  have,  approxi 
mately,  the  Northern  half  of  the  pecuniary  sac 
rifice  at  which  this  fratricidal  strife  is  carried  on. 
Instead  of  estimating  the  Southern  portion  of 
the  cost  as  nearly  parallel,  you  might  as  well 
consider  that  the  Southern  army  is  made  up,  to 
a  great  extent,  of  men  who  were  accustomed  to 
earn  very  little  by  their  industry,  before  the 
war  begun,  and  are  accustomed  to  receive 
little  or  nothing  of  real  value  for  their  coerced 
services  in  it,  while  it  lasts.  But  to  balance 
this  reduction  of  the  expenses  of  the  war  to 

24 


278  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

the  Southern  party,  reflect  that  their  section 
has  to  sustain  the  havoc  and  devastation  of  both 
armies  present  on  their  soil ;  that  all  commer 
cial  intercourse  with  the  outer  world  is  absolutely 
cut  off,  except  what  is  carried  on  by  blockade 
running, —  a  process  in  which  three  ventures  cut 
of  four  are  captured,  and  the  successful  one  has 
to  demand  and  receive  a  price  that  will  pay  for 
the  whole ;  that  industrial  avocations  and  the 
productions  of  the  soil  are  reduced  to  the  limits 
of  what  will  barely  sustain  life ;  that  their 
slaves,  whom  they  valued  so  highly  as  to  stake 
everything  else  on  the  chance  of  preserving 
them  in  slavery,  have  already  been,  or  must 
soon  be,  emancipated  to  a  man,  and  you  will 
perceive  that  there  was  more  truth  than  poetry 
in  the  statement  of  "  Vice-President "  Stephens 
to  the  planters,  that,  "  in  case  they  did  not  suc 
ceed  in  securing  their  independence,  nothing 
which  they  possessed  would  be  worth  anything." 
In  other  words,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  War,  as 
planned  by  its  Southern  authors,  was  designed, 
if  unsuccessful,  to  involve  the  blank  annihilation 
of  the  property  value  of  everything  possessed 
by  Rebel  owners. 

Two  considerations  modify  the  first  view  of 
the  incalculable  pecuniary  sacrifice  so  freely  of 
fered  up  by  the  authors  of  Secession.  First,  they 


SOUTHERN  DISESTEEM   FOR  PROPERTY.  279 

put  a  very  light  estimate  on  all  pecuniary  con 
siderations.  One  efficient  means,  by  which  the 
Southern  mind  has  been  excited  to  war  upon 
the  North,  has  been  the  ridicule  and  contempt 
thrown  on  the  "  Yankees "  for  their  overween 
ing  love  of  property.  This  contempt  for  pecun 
iary  considerations  in  the  Southern  mind,  arises 
first,  from  the  natural  recklessness  of  one  who, 
from  never  having  earned  propert}^  has  little 
appreciation  of  its  worth;  second,  from  a  bar 
baric  indifference  to  that  elevated  civilization 
of  which  property  is  the  basis, —  this  trait  hav 
ing  been  derived  by  the  whites  from  their  social 
participation  in  the  uncivilized  character  of  the 
blacks ;  third  and  last,  but  not  least,  it  is  the 
exhibition  of  that  contempt  for  all  other  consid 
erations,  which  naturally  occupies  the  mind  de 
voted  to  the  pursuit,  exercise,  and  enjoyment  of 
despotic  power. 

In  making,  then,  a  just  estimate  of  the  incal 
culable  pecuniary  sacrifice  at  which  the  authors 
of  this  Rebellion  proposed  to  purchase  their 
triumph  over  our  republican  institutions,  let  us 
make  all  due  allowance  for  their  peculiar  dises- 
teem  for  the  pecuniary  value  of  what  all  other 
claimants  for  the  rank  of  civilized  people  esteem 
as  highly  valuable. 

Second :  A  second  consideration  that  modifies 


280  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

the  first  view  of  this  incalculable  pecuniary  sac 
rifice,  is  the  shade  of  uncertainty  that  rested  on 
the  fact  of  its  being  finally,  and  wholly,  exacted. 
If  Mr.  Buchanan,  as  there  was  doubtless  very 
strong  reason  to  expect  he  would  do,  had  or 
dered  the  evacuation  of  Forts  Sumter  and  Pick- 
ens,  if,  as  there  was  perhaps  every  possible 
assurance  would  be  the  case,  Mr.  Buchanan's 
party  in  the  North  had  stood  up  boldly  and 
blindly  for  the  destruction  of  the  Union,  and 
the  erection  and  immunity  of  a  Southern  Des 
potism,  then  the  negro  property  would  not  all  at 
once  have  been  lost,  and  perhaps  much  of  the 
present  war  expenses  of  the  North  and  South 
would  have  been  for  a  time  postponed.*  But 
giving  due  weight  to  this  peradventure,  we  have 
still  the  absolute  certainty  that  the  original  de 
sign  and  determination  of  the  despot  originators 
of  the  revolt  WAS,  if  they  could  not  attain  their 
end  at  less  expense,  TO  SACRIFICE  THE  WHOLE. 
This  last  qualifying  consideration,  and,  per- 

*  Had  the  authors  of  this  Rebellion  succeeded  in  reducing  the  people  of 
the  whole  country  to  the  condition  of  abject  dependence  in  which  the 
Southern  masses  have  found  themselves,  and  had  they  succeeded  in  doing 
this  before  the  torpid  democracy  of  the  Northern  States  became  alarmed, 
and  before  blood  had  been  shed,  then,  according  to  the  logic  of  all  past 
time,  whatever  of  disaster  and  suffering  might  have  been  incurred  in  ren 
dering  their  usurped  supremacy  perpetual  would  have  been  chargeable,  not 
to  the  despots  themselves,  who  should  fight  "  to  maintain  necessary  and 
wholesome  government,"  but  to  the  "  rebellious  turbulence  "  of  their  subjects 
who  should  fight  to  rid  themselves  of  '  wholesome  and  necessary  restraints.' 


THE  SACRIFICE  OF    LIFE.  281 

haps,  to  some  extent,  the  one  preceding  it,  ap 
ply  also  to  the  third  great  item  in  the  bill  of 
sacrifices  deliberately  offered  by  the  authors  of 
the  present  war,  which  is,  the  sacrifice  of  human 
life  which  it  involves. 

The  data  are  not  at  hand  from  which  to  esti 
mate  the  expense  in  human  life  at  which  this 
terrible  War  has  been  thus  far  prosecuted,  much 
less  can  we  now  calculate  the  bill  of  mortality 
which  will  be  presented  at  its  close. 

The  Union  government  has  called  for  and 
received  for  military  and  naval  service  a  million 
and  a  half  of  men,  perhaps  a  few  more  or  less, 
but  very  nearly  that  number.  During  the  two 
years  and  two  months  of  the  War  already  pass 
ed,  an  average  of  about  800,000  men  must  have 
been  in  the  field.  The  Rebels,  by  their  sweeping 
conscriptions,  without  regard  to  past  precedent 
or  future  prospects  of  keeping  their  number 
good,  have  kept  up  a  force  two-thirds  as  large 
as  the  Union  force,  and  for  a  part  of  the  time 
exceeding  that  proportion.  Modern  implements 
of  war  have  been  destructive  to  life  and  limb 
beyond  a  parallel.  The  fighting  has  been  fre 
quent  and  severe,  though  often  undecisive.  The 
larger  number  of  our  men  has  of  course  ex 
posed  us  to  a  heavier  loss  than  the  Rebels.  A 
lack  of  acclimation  in  the  Southern  fields  which 

24* 


282  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

they  have  occupied  has  acted  against  the  health 
and  lives  of  our  men.  The  improved  and  per 
fected  sanitary  regulations  and  appliances  of  the 
Union  army  have  been  of  immense  effect  in 
saving  our  men.  The  necessary  or  needless 
lack  of  these,  on  the  Rebel  side,  has  brought  the 
actual  loss  to  the  two  about  equal.  Perhaps 
our  assaulting  of  their  Mississippi  fortifications 
is  turning  the  balance  in  their  favor.  The  li 
censed  slaughter  of  all  Union  men  within  the 
reach  of  Rebel  marauders  adds  an  item  to  the 
whole.  From  a  quarter  to  half  a  million  of  the 
most  valuable  lives,  men  in  their  early  prime, 
have  doubtless  already  been  destroyed  in  the 
progress  of  this  War.  Multiply  by  this  the  dis 
tress  and  sorrow  of  a  circle  of  loving  hearts  that 
ached  and  bled  for  each.  If  figures,  or  words 
can  be  found,  adequate  to  express  the  footing  of 
these  three  items  of  this  bill  of  the  sacrifices, 
then  can  we  approximate  the  cost  at  which  the 
perjured  leaders  of  this  inhuman  treason  pro 
posed  to  purchase  their  exemption  from  all  in- 
cumbering  contact  with  the  mildest  and  most 
humane  and  liberal  form  of  civil  society  ever 
realized. 

What  light  does  this  computation  of  their 
deliberate,  intelligently  preconcerted  sacrifices 
throw  on  the  nature  of  their  aim.  The  two  of 


DEVASTATION  THE   CONTINGENT  AIM.  283 

necessity  are  consonant  and  accordant.  What 
is  the  aim  that  accords  with  such  means  of  at 
taining  it?  What  is  the  proposed  diversity  from 
their  former  civil  state  that  justifies  the  outlay 
of  this  unutterable  cost  in  arriving  at  it  ?  The 
picture  before  us  exhibits  the  infuriate  spirit  of 
all  relict  barbarity,  committing  wholesale  demo 
lition  on  the  producers,  and  the  products,  of 
modern  civilization.  It  is  the  demon  of  ancient 
Despotism,  long  driven  from  his  throne,  return 
ing,  "  with  seven  other  spirits  more  wicked  than 
himself,"  to  reduce  the  outgrowth  of  all  modern 
principles  to  that  condition  of  narrowness  and 
poverty  that  suits  a  restoration  of  his  reign. 
The  annihilating  destruction  of  property,  and 
of  national  character,  strength,  and  resources, 
and  the  fiend-gloating  oblation  of  life  and  love 
and  hope,  are  not  so  much  the  dreaded  but  ne 
cessary  means  of  attaining  a  precious  end  that 
compensates  the  cost,  as  they  are  themselves  the 
end,  subordinate  in  ultimate  importance,  only,  to 
the  restoration  of  a  despotism  designed  and 
fitted  to  perpetuate  the  desolation  its  advent 
has  induced. 

The  bill  of  inexpressible  costs,  deliberately 
incurred  by  those  who  laid  and  launched  the 
plot  for  the  destruction  of  the  United  States 
government,  proves  that  the  present  war  is  no 


284  NATURAL  HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

accident,  the  dictate  of  no  mere  caprice.  Men 
do  not  consign  their  own  country,  their  own  sec 
tion,  and  their  own  homes,  to  devastation,  and 
their  own  friends  and  neighbors  and  sons  to 
wholesale  immolation,  from  mere  caprice,  un 
less  their  African  associations  have  reduced 
them  to  the  level  of  Dahomians.  The  present 
War  is  taking  place  under  the  action  of  the 
deepest  principles  and  the  most  abiding  laws 
that  govern  man's  individual  or  associate  action. 
In  case  of  Southern  success,  and  the  achieving 
of  Southern  independence,  the  same  law  that 
induced  the  present  War  and  the  transpiring  sac 
rifice  would  prompt  a  continual  repetition  of 
the  war  and  sacrifice,  till  the  last  remnant  of 
the  hated  democratic  government  shall  have 
been  eradicated  from  the  continent.  In  case  of. 
Rebel  failure,  under  the  action  of  the  same  abid 
ing  law  of  inimical  antipathy  to  all  democratic 
rule,  as  little  almost  as  possible,  besides  bones 
and  ashes,  is  designed  to  be  left,  to  grace  the 
triumph,  or  requite  the  outlay,  of  the  friends  of 
civil  freedom. 

It  is  not  more  the  cause  of  this  country  and 
of  this  generation  than  it  is  the  cause  of  all 
nations  and  of  all  time,  that  is  now  being  fought 
out  on  American  soil,  between  the  friends  and 
the  enemies  of  civil  freedom ;  therefore  this 


FATAL   FASCINATIONS.  285 

ignoring  of  all  human  ties,  on  the  part  of  the 
latter,  this  insatiate  greed  to  ruin  all  that  they 
cannot  permanently  rule. 

We  are  told  that  some  serpents  have  the  abil 
ity  to  fascinate  their  prey.  Few  facts  in  natu 
ral  life  fail  to  exemplify  some  active  principle  in 
the  moral  and  social  world.  So  we  see  this  spir 
it  of  fiendish  destructiveness,  this  unmitigated 
antagonist,  not  only  of  democratic  equality  of 
rights,  but  of  all  human  happiness  and  prosper 
ity,  fascinates  into  an  insane  fondness  for  itself, 
first,  and  most  naturally,  the  female  portion  of 
its  master-class;  second,  and  most  fatally,  the 
poor  white  portion  of  its  own  Southern  com 
munity,  whom  it  has  kept  in  permanent  depri 
vation  of  everything  but  naked  existence  on  the 
cheapest  rations  ;  third,  last,  and  least  excus 
ably,  those  political  partisans  at  the  North, 
drunk  from  the  orgies  of  former  political  tri 
umph  and  partisan  excesses,  beyond  the  possi 
bility  of  ever  conceiving  a  purer  desire,  or  a 
nobler  design,  than  to  achieve  the  overthrow 
of  those  whom  they  elect  to  treat  as  political 
enemies,  though  patriotism  and  peace,  prosper 
ity,  national  existence,  and  the  star  of  hope,  go 
down  in  bloody  chaos  and  eternal  night  at  their 
discomfiture. 

It  is   the  necessary  infirmity  of  all   democ- 


286  NATURAL   HISTORY  OP  SECESSION. 

racy,  that  the  most  ignorant  and  incompetent, 
the  constitutionally  selfish,  incapacitated,  ma 
lign,  and  perversely  active,  as  well  as  the  able, 
devoted,  and  patriotic,  must  have  an  equal 
chance  of  acting  on  the  destinies  of  the  civil 
State.  But  that  the  former  classes  should  com 
bine,  with  no  other  creed,  doctrine,  or  political 
principle  than  that  of  dividing  the  incomes  and 
patronage  of  civil  employment  among  them 
selves,  and  to  this  end  the  electing  at  every  cost 
of  the  candidate  of  their  own  nominating, — this 
is  a  misfortune,  so  far  as  history  shows,  pecul 
iar  to  the  American  Republic. 

That,  after  thirty  years  of  success  and  consol 
idation,  this  ruling  combination,  under  the  blind 
and  fatuitous  assumption  that  they  are  thereby 
to  perpetuate  their  power,  should  sell  them 
selves,  and  their  hitherto  ruling  influence,  to  a 
clique  of  the  boldest  despots,  professing  to  aim 
at  nothing  but  the  enslavement  of  subordin 
ates,  and  exultingly  gloating  at  the  repast,  as 
they  clutch  the  vitals  and  drink  the  life-blood 
of  the  nation,  —  this  results  from  criminal  delin 
quency  on  the  part  of  better  men  than  them 
selves, —  a  delinquency  which  the}r,  who  are 
guilty  of  it,  and  their  unoffending  sons  and 
daughters  are  now  atoning  for  in  tears  and 
treasure,  and  are  washing  out  with  blood. 


CAUSES   OF  SECESSION.  287 

Good  and  evil  originate  and  abide  together  in 
every  human  community.  But  that,  among  the 
rich  privileges  which  republican  government 
confers  upon  its  possessors  is  the  privilege  of 
perpetually  postponing  with  impunity  all  polit 
ical  strife  between  the  evil  and  the  good,  is  a 
fundamental  error,  and  leads  to  the  accumula 
tion  of  the  arrearages  of  that  unpleasant  and 
neglected  duty,  into  an  avalanche  like  that 
which  is  pouring  on  the  virtuous  portion  of  the 
nation  at  such  an  hour  as  this. 

It  is  not  transcending  the  legitimate  bounda 
ries  of  political,  historic  inquest  to  note  that  no 
small  encouragement  has  been  given  to  the 
present  onslaught  on  the  government  and  life 
of  the  nation,  by  those  infidel  diddlers  who 
have  so  industriously  inoculated  the  Northern 
mind  with  non-resistant  and  no-punishment  sen 
timents  that  it  was  matter  of  military  calcula 
tion  that  a  certain  portion  of  the  Northern  peo 
ple  would  "lie  supinely"  still,  while  despots 
"bound  them  hand  and  foot,"  and  cut  the 
throats  of  such  as  they  did  not  see  fit  to  con 
sign  to  active  servitude. 

The  permitted  self-appropriation  of  the  terms 
"  Democracy,"  and  "  Democratic "  by  the  pro- 
slavery,  pro-southern  politicians  of  the  North, 
has  exerted  an  immense  influence  with  the  un- 


288  NATURAL  HISTORY  OP  SECESSION. 

informed  and  the  unreflecting  at  home  and 
abroad,  in  bringing  the  country  to  its  present 
imperilled  and  distressed  condition.  And  every 
man  professing  Union  sentiments,  who  by  his 
practice  still  sanctions  that  appropriation  of 
those  terms,  to  that  extent  becomes  accessory 
to  the  traitor's  crime. 

The  artful  orators  and  editors  of  the  South 
have,  from  the  first,  used  only  that  form  of 
speech  which  ignores  entirely  the  possible  dis 
solving  of  the  joints  and  bands  by  which  their 
subordinates  are  incorporated  into  one  living, 
acting  organism,  under  its  despotic  head.  North 
ern  partisans  of  the  despots,  of  course,  adopt  the 
same  rule  of  utterance,  and  the  Union  people, 
and  the  government  itself,  have  been  too  ready 
to  allow  this  form  of  expression  respecting  the 
Southern  people.  Those  despot  leaders  speak 
of  "subjugation  or  success  as  their  only  alter 
native,"  and  say  that  "  annihilation  and  subju 
gation  mean  the  same  thing."  Their  views 
in  this  regard  are  doubtless  correct,  so  far  as 
themselves  individually  and  their  own  domi 
nating  class  are  concerned.  And  their  anni 
hilation  is  probably  the  first  indispensable  step 
toward  a  restoration  of  peace.  But  that  the 
seven  and  three-fourths  millions  of  Southern 
white  population,  who  occupy  the  place,  and 


DEMOCRACY  AT  THE  SOUTH.  289 

participate  in  the  spirit,  only  of  the  subject 
masses  of  a  grinding  despotism  would  con 
sign  themselves  to  annihilation  rather  than 
become  reformed  into  a  community  of  equal 
rights,  —  a  sincere  democracy,  —  is  an  unde- 
monstrated  proposition  which  no  one  believes 
to  be  true,  not  even  those  who  never  speak 
as  if  its  falsity  were  possible.  The  absence, 
root  and  branch,  of  the  whole  system  of  ne 
gro  slavery,  and  the  annihilation  of  the  des 
potic  master-class  from  among  them,  will  work 
wonders  in  preparing  the  way  for  vast,  radi 
cal,  rapid,  and  enduring  changes  in  the  polit 
ical  faith  and  practice  of  the  masses  of  white 
population  at  the  South. 

25 


XLVII. 

CONCLUDING   REFLECTIONS  —  THE    DEMOCRAT   AND   DESPOT   DI 
VERSE GRADES      OF     DESPOTISM DEVELOPMENTS     OF — 

DEMOCRACY  SPONTANEOUS  IN  ITS  SPREAD IF  IT  DEVEL 
OPS  IN  THE  SOUTH,  ITS  TRIUMPH  UNIVERSAL.  —  CONTRAST 
OF  ADMINISTRATIONS  —  DELINQUENCY  OF  THE  OLD  WHIG 
STATESMEN FINAL  SUCCESS. 

WE  now  glance  back,  prepared  to  estimate 
more  perfectly  than  at  any  previous  point  the 
true  value  of  what  will  have  been  found  to  be  a 
leading  doctrine  in  what  this  book  contains; 
namely,  that  the  despot  and  the  democrat  are 
two  distinct  kinds  of  being  in  the  civil  world,  as 
irreconcilably  and  unconvertibly  different  as  it 
is  possible  to  make  those  who  possessed  origi 
nally  the  same  natural  physical  and  mental  con 
stitution.  In  other  words,  as  stated  at  first,  the 
change  from  despotism  to  democracy,  or  the 
reverse,  is  the  greatest  secular  change  to  which 
the  human  constitution  is  liable,  whether  the 
individual  or  the  community  be  the  subject  on 
which  the  change  is  considered  to  have  passed. 
So  that  the  democrat  and  the  despot,  the  friend 
and  advocate  of  democracy  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  friend  and  advocate  of  despotism  on 
the  other  hand,  are  as  inconvertibly  different,  as 

290 


CLASS  DIVERSITIES.    t  291 

irreconcilably  antagonistic  to  each  other,  in  the 
civil  world,  as  it  is  possible  for  two  individuals 
to  become,  each  of  whom  started  with  the  same 
conformation  of  body  and  of  mind. 

We  use  the  qualifying  term  secular,  in  speak 
ing  of  this  difference,  this  change,  in  order  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  change  of  character 
which  separates  between  the  individual  who 
does,  and  the  individual  who  does  not,  volunta 
rily  submit  himself  to  the  moral  government  of 
God. 

We  would  here,  without  discussing  its  merits, 
suggest  the  inquiry,  whether  there  is  not,  in  this 
age  and  section  of  the  world,  a  marked  dispar 
ity  between  the  friends  of  democracy  and  the 
friends  of  despotism,  in  respect  to  the  propor 
tion  which  each  class  contains  of  those  who  be 
lieve  in,  and  aim  sincerely  to  obey,  the  revealed 
Scriptures. 

We  would  still  bear  in  mind  that  the  despotic 
class  are  of  two  grades, — the  governing  and  the 
governed;  the  ambitious  and  selfish  and  po 
tent  few,  and  the  foiled  and  defeated  and  cir 
cumvented,  but  still  undemocratic,  many. 

We  would  here  reflect  on  what  needs  no  ex 
tended  discussion,  such  is  its  obviousness,  —  that 


292  NATURAL  HISTORY   OF   SECESSION. 

any  considerable  aspiration  after  office,  power, 
or  perhaps  after  permanently  accumulated 
wealth,*  is  essentially  a  despotic  exercise,  radi 
cally  inimical  to  democracy,  inimical  to  that 
consenting  equality  of  privilege  which  is  the 
soul  and  essence  of  democracy  —  and  consti 
tutes  the  nascent  struggle  by  which  the  radical 
ly  despotic  member  of  the  abject  grade  in  a  des 
potism  breaks  the  shell  of  his  chrysalis,  to  come 
forth  a  full-fledged,  breeding  specimen  of  the 
ruling  class,  as  inconvertibly  fixed  in  despotic 
principles  as  devils  are  in  sin. 

Here,  evidently,  is  one  of  the  greatest  perils 
of  a  maturely  democratic  State,  namely,  in  the 
natural  ambition  of  the  individual  to  possess 
himself  of  a  fragment  from  the  crumbling  pre 
rogative  of  despotic  power,  especially  as  the 
vigilant,  restless,  persevering,  and  persistent  en 
terprise  which  this  ambition  produces,  stands 
out  in  uncompensated  contrast,  and  destructive 
antagonism,  against  the  modest,  unambitious 
self-restraint  which  characterizes,  and  constitutes 
the  leading  element  in,  true  democracy. 

Thus  in  the  ordinary  routine  of  electing  civil 
officers  in  a  democratic  State,  the  most  despoti 
cally  inclined  come  to  the  surface  naturally,  and 

*  That  "  cursed  love  of -gold,"  which  the  Father  of  our  Country  foresaw, 
would  be  a  chief  source  of  peril  to  the  permanency  of  our  government. 


OFFICE-SEEKERS  DESPOTIC.  293 

those  employed  in  the  activity  peculiar  to  the 
nascent  despot  are  almost  the  only  ones  that 
stand  any  chance  of  being  elected.  Thus  the 
indiscriminated  and  the  indiscriminating  attach 
ment  to  principles  of  popular  freedom  and  dem 
ocratic  equality,  on  the  one  hand,  becomes  pitted 
against  the  restless  energy  of  the  individual 
despot,  on  the  other  hand  ;  and  hence  arises  an 
element  of  strife,  if  not  the  leading  element  of 
strife,  in  the  greater  number  of  our  popular 
elections,  unless  it  be  when  two  candidates  who 
are  both  more  aspiring  than  democratic  get  to 
contending  with  each  other  over  the  coveted 
preferment.  And  every  succeeding  success  of 
candidates  thus  procuring  themselves  to  be  elect 
ed  leaves  their  kind  and  class  encouraged  and 
strengthened,  and  leaves  the  indiscriminating 
lovers  of  popular  liberty,  over  whom  they  tri 
umph,  more  cowed  and  abject.  Thus  the  demo 
cratic  community,  under  the  modern  self-electing 
agency  of  office-seekers,  yearly  approximates 
more  and  more  nearly  to  the  constitution  of  a 
despotic  state  of  society,  which  is  characterized 
by  a  division  into  the  ruling  few  and  the  abject 
many. 

I  find  myself  sometimes  instinctively  calling 
for  some  coercive  force  wherewith  to  extend  the 


294  NATURAL   HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

principles  of  democratic  freedom.  But  such  an 
idea  is  absurd.  It  is  but  a  lingering  remnant 
of  despotic  life  .  enlisting  itself  in  favor  of  a 
changed  and,  to  it,  an  unnatural  aim.  Democratic 
principles,  the  love  and  practice  of  popular  free 
dom,  are  of  their  own  essential  nature,  necessarily 
self-propagating,  purely  spontaneous  in  their 
spread.  To  curb  and  curtail  the  usurping  pow 
er  of  despots,  to  afford  to  popular  masses  time 
and  space  and  facilities  for  self-education  and 
elevation,  and  to  set  before  them  present  ex 
amples  of  an  imperative  demand  for,  and  a  self- 
restrained  contentment  with,  democratic  equality 
of  civil  position  and  privilege,  appears  to  be  all 
that  can  be  done  for  propagating  principles  of 
democracy  beyond  the  sphere  in  which  an  indi 
vidual  or  a  people  is  alone  responsible.* 

This  kind  of  protection  and  encouragement 
may  be  given  to  the  subordinate  classes  in  the 
Seceded  States,  in  the  absence  of  slavery,  and 
if  a  rising  spirit  of  democracy  and  self-improve 
ment  appears  and  develops  itself,  as,  aided  by 
something  of  immigration,  doubtless  will  be  the 
case,  then  this  continent  is  secure  and  sacred 
to  democracy.  Otherwise,  and  especially  if  sla- 


*  All  the  democratic  principles  or  practices  propagated  by  dictation,  are 
only  such  as  are  received  by  the  abject  class  in  a  despotic  state  of  society 
over  which  that  dictating  power  presides. 


TREASON  IN  LEGISLATION.  295 

very  is  permanently  replanted,  the  seeds  and 
source  of  civil  despotism  remain,  consuming 
conflict  is  inevitable,  and  the  pining  anguish  of 
intestine  strife,  or  fratricidal  war,  is  perpetuated 
and  must  prevail,  till  the  sickened  nationality 
rots  away.  For  if  these  seeds  and  this  source 
of  despotism  survive  their  present  low  and  im 
perilled  predicament,  there  is  little  hope  that 
they  will  ever  become  extinct ;  and  as  for  the 
spirit  of  freedom  which  is  inimical  to  all  despot 
ism,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  will  die 
out  from  this  its  Heaven-prepared  birth-place 
and  home,  until  it  shall  have  died  out  elsewhere 
from  off  Jehovah's  footstool. 


As  the  war  progresses,  and,  more  especially 
since  the  military  power  of  the  "  Confederacy  " 
begins  to  show  exhaustion,  and  Southern  Union 
ists  begin  to  speak  out,  and  tell  what  they 
know,  as  R.  S.  Donnell,  of  the  "  Ealeigh  State 
Journal,"  has  recently  [August  20th,  1863]  done, 
it  becomes  undeniable  as  a  matter  of  history, 
that  the  plan  to  divide  the  Union  was  formed 
by  leading  Southerners  many  years  ago,  and 
that  many  measures  of  government  and  legisla 
tion,  like  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro 
mise,  the  framing  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, — 


296  NATURAL  HISTORY  OF  SECESSION. 

even  back  to  the  building  of  the  forts  that  guard 
the  Southern  ports,  —  and  especially  leading 
measures  adopted  by  the  ruling  political  party, 
and  the  final  rupture  of  that  party  at  its  con 
vention  at  Charleston,  were  steps  taken  with  di 
rect  reference  to  the  intended  separation,  and 
with  the  design  to  make  that  separation  easy 
and  certain/1'  As  matter  of  history,  independent 
of  any  argument  this  work  elsewhere  contains, 
I  now  desire  to  refer  to  this  admitted  fact,  and 
to  make  it  the  basis  of  the  following  argument. 
To  form  a  plan  of  operations  so  momentous 
and  so  vast,  to  impress  the  disposition  and  pur 
pose  of  its  execution  on  an  extensive  and  ruling 
class  of  men,  in  many  and  diverse  States,  to 
transmit  the  plan  and  purpose  from  generation 
to  generation,  as  these  Southern  leaders  have 
done  ;  to  interlock  their  damnable  treason  in 
disguise  with  the  most  important  acts  of  the 
government  and  of  the  people  of  the  nation 
through  a  course  of  tens  of  years,  to  say  noth 
ing  of  the  herculean  strength  and  almost  su 
perhuman  activity  which  these  leaders  have 
developed  and  displayed  since  the  War  began, 
—  and  this,  too,  with  only  the  passive  support  of 
popular  masses  whose  every  real  interest  was  in 
point  blank  hostility  to  the  course  their  leaders 

*  See  Mason's  letter  to  Davis,  —  Appendix  C. 


TALENTS   PECULIAR  TO   DESPOTS   AND   VILLAINS.    297 

induced  them  to  pursue,  —  demonstrates  these 
Southern  leaders  of  the  Rebellion  to  possess  exec 
utive  talents  and  governing  abilities  which  never 
have  been,  or  can  be,  either  produced  or  perpet 
uated  in  individual  democrats,  or  in  a  democratic 
community. 

The  confiding  quiet  of  a  democratic  state  of 
society,  while  it  affords  the  amplest  scope  for 
self-elevation  by  the  arts  of  peace  and  useful 
industry,  affords  neither  cause  nor  opportunity  for 
developing  talents  parallel  to  those  which  the 
Southern  leaders  have  displayed.* 

The  absence  of  these  talents,  and  the  absence 
of  the  aims  and  avocations  which  constitute  their 
peculiar  exercise,  —  the  absence  of  a  fiery  ambi 
tion  that  would  consume  every  endeared  thing 
but  its  naked  self,  would  immolate  its  country 
men,  and  leave  its  native  land  a  blackened  waste, 
in  the  pursuit  of  despotic  power,  —  this  is  the 
great  deficiency  in  "Yankee"  constitution  and 
character,  which  renders  the  democratic  popu 
lation  of  the  North  so  insufferably  offensive  in 
modern  times  to  the  nostrils  of  Southern  men. 
But  thanks  be  to  God,  there  are  more  than  seven 

*  The  nearest  approach  that  is  made  to  this  will  probably  be  in  the  case  of 
some  stray  villain  who  makes  it  his  business  to  prey  upon  the  possessions 
and  rights  of  others,  and  defy  the  law.  In  this  line  of  action,  extraordinary 
abilities  are  sometimes  developed;  after  the  manner  of  the  Kansas  Quantrcll, 
and  the  guerrilla,  John  Morgan. 


298  NATURAL  HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

and  a  half  millions  of  Southern  men  who  are  in 
capable  of  appreciating,  or  even  perceiving,  this 
offensiveness,  —  men  to  whom  a  taste  of  demo 
cratic  equality  of  rights  and  privileges,  and  an 
introduction  to  the  arts  of  peace  and  industry 
as  they  have  become  developed  in  the  truly 
democratic  North,  in  the  absence  of  slaves  and 
their  despot  masters,  and  of  fear  of  servile  in 
surrection,  will  be  as  life  from  the  dead.* 

If  the  present  War  succeeds  in  emancipating 
these  millions  of  Southern  whites  from  the  grind 
ing  despotism  under  which  they  have  been 
crushed  from  generation  to  generation,  till  they 
had  become  so  conformed  to  their  impoverished 
and  depressed  condition  as  to  be  hopelessly  un 
conscious  of  their  wrongs,  it  will  have  added 
another  brilliant  wreath  to  the  diadem  of  Lib 
erty, —  will  have  given  that  turn  to  the  tide  of 
victory  which  must  render  her  dominion  on 
this  continent  perpetual  and  supreme. 

The  exhaustless  resources  and  massive  pop 
ular  strength  which  gather  spontaneously  to 
democracy  must  be  relied  on,  in  the  yet  un- 
ended  conflict  between  the  two,  to  counterpoise 


*  Tyrants  hate  democrats,  their  subjects  never,  except  so  far  as  they  have 
been  trained  like  apes  to  imitate  the  very  sentiments  and  sensations  of  their 
keepers. 


FORECAST,   NOT   ARMS,   THE   ARBITER.  299 

the  talent  for  command  peculiar  to  the  cham 
pions  of  despotism. 

A  moiety  of  the  peculiar  ability  that,  in  the 
space  of  a  few  weeks,  successfully  commanded 
the  millions  of  Southern  whites,  who  supposed 
themselves  to  be  democratic  members  of  a  dem 
ocratic  community,  into  the  subordinate  ranks 
of  a  consolidated  despotism  of  the  most  bloody 
and  inhuman  kind,  had  that  moiety  been  pos 
sessed  on  the  other  side,  would  have  frustrated 
the  current  treason  in  somewhat  the  style  in 
which  its  prelude,  nullification,  was  brought  to 
nought. 

The  issue,  in  the  existing  War,  is  between 
Despotism  and  its  supporters  on  the  one  hand, 
and  Democracy  and  its  adherents  on  the  other 
hand.  These  two  belligerents  have  each  the 
seat  of  its  power  and  the  body  of  its  forces, 
mainly,  but  not  entirely,  the  former  at  the 
South,  the  latter  at  the  North.  Each  belligerent 
has  some  friends  on  the  territory  controlled  by 
its  antagonist ;  and  the  one  that,  by  the  aid  of 
its  absent  friends,  succeeds  in  raising  an  impor 
tant  diversion  (producing  a  permanent  revolt) 
on  the  soil  and  among  the  adherents  of  its  an 
tagonist,  must  be  the  final  winner.  The  same 
was  true  before  the  strife  at  arms  commenced, 
is  true  while  that  strife  lasts,  and  will  continue 
to  be  true  when  that  strife  is  over. 


300  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

Each  belligerent  has  its  forces  mainly  on  the 
section  of  this  country  which  it  controls,  but 
Europe,  Africa,  and  Asia,  heaven,  earth,  and  hell, 
are  all  interested  and  taking  active  part  in  the 
conflict.  Every  month  the  contest  approaches, 
and  the  combatants  divide,  more  and  more  obvi 
ously  near  upon  the  line  that  separates  between 
righteousness  and  iniquity. 

The  successful  artifice  by  which  John  Morgan, 
after  such  a  course  as  he  had  run,  succeeded  in 
surrendering  himself,  unhurt,  a  prisoner  of  war 
in  the  interior  of  Ohio,  the  inhuman  plan,  and 
still  more  inhuman  execution  of  that  plan,  by 
which  Davis  rids  his  dominions  of  those  who  are 
unfriendly  to  him,  putting  them  in  the  van  of 
the  hottest  fights,  and  hanging  as  traitors  all 
who  object  to  being  thus  disposed  of,  the  style 
in  which  Generals  Baker,  Lander,  McCook,  and 
others  of  whom  Davis  was  afraid,  have  been  put 
out  of  the  way,  the  African  style  in  which 
Lawrence,  Kansas,  was  treated,  *  —  these  in  con 
trast  with  the  guilelessness  that  is  ever  permit 
ting  the  success  of  such  artifices  as  that  of 
Morgan  and  the  rest,  together  with  the  self- 
restraint  that  leaves  Davis' s  dominions  so  long 
and  so  extensively  uninterfercd  with,  give  the 

*  The  Richmond  Examiner  justifies  the  Lawrence  massacre  as  a  "  gallant 
and  perfectly  fair  blow  at  the  enemy."  —  Boston  paper. 


CONTRAST   OF   ADMINISTRATIONS.  301 

characteristic  lineaments  of  the  two  belliger 
ents.* 

The  idea  of  destroying  Davis's  government  in 
the  estimation  and  confidence  of  the  Southern 
people  appears  never  to  have  entered  into  Presi 
dent  Lincoln's  plan  of  operation.  Perhaps  it 
would  have  availed  nothing  if  it  had.  Even  if 
it  had  entered  into  that  plan,  and  had  been 
availing,  the  despotic  organism  over  which 
Davis  presides,  like  polyps  of  certain  species, 
when  beheaded,  would  spontaneously  supply  its 
deficiency,  and  live  on.  But  the  idea  of  destroy 
ing  the  present  administration  in  the  esteem 
and  confidence  of  the  Northern  people,  and  the 
(to  them  at  least)  apparent  feasibility  of  the 
project,  have  doubtless  presented  a  prominent 
object  of  aspiration  and  effort,  and  a  prominent 
source  of  hope  and  encouragement  to  the  Rebel 
leaders. 

According  to  the  light  we  now  possess,  had 
the  present  administration  shown  itself  to  any 
considerable  extent  more  feeble  and  hesitating 
than  it  did,  the  loyal  masses  of  its  supporters 
would  have  become  so  doubting  and  disheart 
ened,  and  the  Northern  friends  of  treason  would 
have  become  so  bold  and  active,  that  Secession 
would  have  had  an  early  triumph ;  or  the  War 

*  See  Appendix  D. 
26 


302  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

would  have  been  protracted  to  a  point  at  which 
reunion  would  not  have  appeared  worth  con 
tending  for. 

On  the  other  hand,  had  the  present  adminis 
tration,  at  an  early  period  of  the  struggle,  rung 
out  a  clear  analysis  of  the  situation,  and  a 
decided  policy,  after  the  manner  of  Gen.  Rose- 
crans'  letter  to  the  Ohio  legislature;  had  it 
adopted  and  pursued  a  military  course,  obvi 
ously,  inexorably,  with  ever-deepening  stress, 
and  by  the  use  of  all  availing  means,  bent  on 
the  achieving  of  its  proper  aims,  instead  of  coun 
termanding  the  orders  of  Fremont,  Hunter,  and 
Burnside,  and  catering  to  the  semi-secessionists 
of  the  Border  States  till  the  exhaustion  and 
havoc  of  eighteen  months  of  war,  apparently 
spent  in  demonstrating  the  mildness  of  the 
government,  had  quenched  the  fervor  of  united 
patriotism  which  was  kindled  by  the  first  attack 
on  Fort  Sumter,  —  thus  leaving  the  stagnant 
and  discouraged  feelings  and  opinions  of  the 
people  to  be  tampered  with  by  such  demagogues 
as  C.  L.  Yallandigham,  D.  W.  Voorhees,  Fer 
nando  Wood  and  the  Toucey  Seymours, — might 
not  this  administration  have  so  led  the  Northern 
people,  instead  of  waiting  to  be  led  by  them, 
as  to  have  diminished  the  blood-and-treasure  ex 
penses  of  the  War  by  one  or  two  years'  expen- 


DELINQUENCY   OF   STATESMEN.  303 

ditures  ?  This  is  a  question  for  later  days  to 
answer.  And  the  right  and  final  answer,  it  may 
be,  will  not  be  given  before  another  century 
has  shed  its  light  on  the  points  in  which  av vir 
tuous  monarch  and  an  equally  virtuous  chief 
magistrate  of  a  democratic  people  agree  4e  differ. 

Something  of  the  same  light,  perhaps,  also, 
should  be  allowed  to  fall  on  the  inquiry,  whether 
the  statesmen  of  the  old  Whig  school,  in  their 
unrelaxed  and  undying  antagonism  to  the  pro 
gressive  corruption  and  traitorous  depravity  of 
their  opponents,  instead  of  allowing  themselves 
to  be  finally  discomfited  and  laying  themselves 
down  in  quiet  graves,  either  beneath  or  above 
the  sod,  should  not,  one  and  all,  have  left  their 
homes  at  Bladensburg,  if  need  required  it,  sooner 
than  have  left  the  envenomed  progeny  of  Cal- 
houn  and  his  political  party  thus  to  immerse 
the  nation  in  its  self-shed  blood,  and  thus  to 
precipitate  a  peril  to  the  cause  of  Liberty  more 
to  be  dreaded  than  the  sacrifice  by  which  the 
threatening  disaster  is  being  turned  away. 

But  the  delinquency  of  these  statesmen,  and 
the  resulting  sacrifice  and  peril,  are  putting  a 
purer  and  more  grateful  song  in  the  lips  of  those 
who,  with  something  of  the  faith  of  ancient  Mi 
riam,  are  disposed  to  praise  their  people's  Great 
Deliverer. 


304  NATURAL   HISTORY   OF  SECESSION. 

When  this  dreadful  War  shall  have  ended, — 
when  this  conspiracy  of  home-born  traitors  shall 
have  heen  effectually  put  down,  and  this  con 
federation  of  foreign  despots,  potentates,  and 
powers,  shall  have  been  defeated,  —  then  will 
there  go  up  one  general  shout  of  joy,  —  joy 
more  heartfelt,  more  wide-extended  and  endur 
ing,  than  human  hearts  ever  before  experienced, 
or  human  tongues  ever  uttered  before.  "  Ethi 
opia  shall  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God,"  and 
the  emancipated  millions  of  our  Southern  white 
population  will  soon  send  back  the  sound. 


APPENDIX. 


A.     (Page  267.) 

THE  following  extract  from  a  letter  addressed,  March  25th, 
1862,  to  a  Senator  who  had  moved  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  the  compensated  emancipation  of  slaves  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  presents  one  feature  of  the  process  of  emancipa 
tion  :  — 

SIR  :  —  A  proposition  to  emancipate  the  slaves  of  the  unse- 
ceded  States,  with  a  compensation  to  masters,  being  prominently 
before  Congress,  having  had  extended  acquaintance  among 
Southern  men,  and  some  experience  in  the  management  of 
slaves,  and  having  been  for  the  six  years  last  past  a  voter  in 
your  State,  I  ask  leave  to  lay  before  you  briefly  a  few  reflec 
tions  on  this  subject. 

I  believe  it  to  be  admitted  as  true,  among  those  whose  experi 
ence  best  entitles  them  to  know,  that  slave-labor  is  unprofitable, 
except  where  employed  in  the  producing  of  some  one  great 
staple  commodity  readily  marketable  for  cash. 

Since  the  introduction  of  tobacco-culture  into  the  new  States 
of  the  West,  slave-holding  in  the  northernmost  of  the  Slave 
States  has  been  decidedly  unprofitable ;  and  must  have  been 
abandoned,  had  it  not  been  for  the  profit  derived  by  selling  off 
the  increase  of  the  slave  population  to  the  Cotton  States. 

Now,  the  present  War  either  will,  or  will  not,  destroy  the 
slave-market  in  the  far  South.  If  that  market  is  destroyed,  slave 
property  in  the  other  States  thereupon  becomes,  with  few  and 
seeming  exceptions,  utterly  and  notoriously  worthless ;  and  any 
proposal  to  pay  masters  out  of  the  United  States  treasury  for 

26*  805 


306  APPENDIX. 

relinquishing  their  claim  on  it,  is  little  else  than  fraudulent.     If, 
on  the  other  hand,  slavery  in  the  Cotton  States  is  not  destroyed, 
then  slaves  in  the  Border  States  have  still  a  pecuniary  value ; 
and  by  proposing  to  compensate  masters  for  releasing  them,  gov 
ernment  simply  enters  the  market  as  a  competitor,  to  keep  up 
the  price.         ........ 

All  that  is  vital  to  our  national  existence  and  prosperity,  is 
involved  in  the  prompt  and  utter  extinction  of  slavery  in  the 
cotton  latitudes. 

« 

B.     (Page  252.) 

The  following  article  on  political  nomenclature,  was  published 
in  the  "  Portland  Press,"  of  July,  1863  :- 

A  more  damning  falsehood  never  was  palmed  off  on  a  pack  of 
fools,  than  that  the  pro-southern,  pro-slavery  politicians  of  the  North 
are  not  the  radical  and  nccessarj  enemies  of  all  democracy. 

No  two  things  in  nature  are  more  irreconcilable,  invariably 
and  eternally  antagonistic,  than  despotism  and  democracy.  One 
or  the  other  must  perish,  wherever  they  come  in  contact. 

Slavery  is  the  darkest,  densest  form  of  despotism. 

The  Southern  Confederacy,  founded  on  slavery,  begotten  of 
slavery,  living  for,  aiming  at,  tending  toward,  and  ending  in, 
nothing  else  but  slavery,  already  presents  the  world,  in  this  third 
year  of  its  nascent  existence,  with  the  fiercest  and  most  unmit 
igated  form  of  despotism  that  there  is  this  side  of  Dahomey. 
Its  European  abettors,  with  Louis  Napoleon  at  the  head  and  the 
"  London  Times,"  at  the  tail,  arc  the  dregs  of  Europe's  effete  des 
potic  class.  But  these  Northern  sympathizers  with,  and  aiders 
of,  the  precious  combination,  forsooth  we  are  told  are  "Demo 
crats  "  ! 

Now  the  mere  sound  of  the  words  democrat  and  democratic 
sways  the  opinion  of  large  masses  of  European  minds,  controls 
the  political  faith  and  action  of  the  principal  portion  of  our  im- 


APPENDIX.  307 

migrants  and  of  immense  multitudes  of  our  home-born  voters ; 
and  as  long  as  Union  men,  democratic  supporters  of  a  demo 
cratic  government,  allow  and  aid  the  bald  and  brazen  advocates 
of  everything  that  pertains  to  despotism  to  adorn  themselves 
and  delude  their  dupes  with  the  purloined  and  self-appropriated 
title,  "  Democrats,"  so  long  will  conclusive  reasoning  on  political 
subjects  before  the  public  mind  be  impracticable  ;  out  of  the  re 
sulting  fog  and  confusion,  designing  demagogues  will  have  an 
easy  task  to  make  the  worst  appear  the  better  argument ;  if  our 
armies  are  victorious  in  the  field,  wavering  multitudes  will  join 
the  side  of  victory,  without  any  apprehension  of  the  nature  or 
importance  of  the  principles  that  win  ;  and  while  the  war  contin 
ues,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  honest  and  right-minded  men  like 
Butler  and  Corcoran  will  have  to  fight  and  toil  and  suffer  for 
years,  before  they  will  begin  to  see  that  Jeff.  Davis  and  his 
comrades  are  not  entirely  innocent,  while  they  call  themselves 
"  Democrats  "  and  Abraham  Lincoln  a  "despot,"  —  and  all  this 
because  our  political  writers  and  speakers  and  thinkers  lack  the 
grace  and  courage  to  call  things  by  their  right  names. 

Abraham  Lincoln  is  a  democrat.  His  administration  is  a 
democratic  administration.  The  only  opposite  of  democratic  is 
despotic.  Jefferson  Davis  is  a  despot.  His  administration  is 
a  despotism.  The  men  who  support  and  favor  it  are  in  favor  of 
despotism.  When  they  shall  have  done  with  the  United  States, 
if  they  do  not  get  used  up  before  that  time,  the  United  States 
will  be  a  despotism,  and  all —  as  many  as  dwell  within  its  boun 
daries  —  who  are  not  in  favor  of  despotic  government  will  be 
compelled  to  keep  their  mouths  shut,  or  do  worse.  T.  S.  Gr. 


C.     (Page  259.) 

The  following  is  a  letter  from  Frank  Pierce  to  Jeff.  Davis, 
which  was  originally  published  in  Concord  about  a  week  ago. 


308  APPENDIX. 

As  its  authenticity  has  not  been  disputed,  we  may  safely  con 
clude  that  it  is  genuine. 


CLARENDON  HOTEL,  January  6, 1860. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND  :  —  I  wrote  you  an  unsatisfactory  note  a 
day  or  two  since.  I  have  just  had  a  pleasant  interview  with  Mr. 
Shepley,  whose  courage  and  fidelity  are  equal  to  his  learning 
and  talents.  He  says  he  would  rather  fight  the  battle  with  you 
as  the  standard  bearer  in  1860  than  under  the  auspices  of  any 
other  leader.  The  feeling  and  judgment  of  Mr.  S.  in  this  rela 
tion  is,  I  am  confident,  rapidly  gaining  ground  in  New  England. 
Our  people  are  looking  for  the  "Coming  Man,"  one  who  is 
raised  by  all  the  elements  of  his  character  above  the  atmosphere 
ordinarily  breathed  by  politicians,  —  a  man  really  fitted  for  this 
emergency  by  his  ability,  courage,  broad  statesmanship  and 
patriotism. 

Colonel  Seymour  (Thomas  H.)  arrived  here  this  morning  and 
expressed  his  views  in  this  relation  in  almost  the  identical  lan 
guage  used  by  Mr.  Shepley.  It  is  true  that  in  the  present  state 
of  things  at  Washington  and  throughout  the  country,  no  man 
can  predict  what  changes  two  or  three  months  may  bring  forth. 
Let  me  suggest  that  in  the  morning  debates  of  Congress,  full 
justice  seems  to  me  not  to  have  been  done  to  the  Democracy 
of  the  North.  I  do  not  believe  that  our  friends  at  the  South 
have  any  just  idea  of  the  state  of  feeling  hurrying  at  this  mo 
ment  to  the  pitch  of  intense  exasperation  between  those  who  re 
spect  their  political  obligations,  and  those  who  have  apparently 
no  impelling  power  but  that  which  fanatical  passion  on  the  sub 
ject  of  domestic  slavery  imparts. 

Without  discussing  the  question  of  right,  —  of  abstract  power 
to  secede  —  I  have  never  believed  that  actual  disruption  of  the 
Union  can  occur  without  blood ;  and  if,  through  the  madness  of 
Northern  Abolitionists,  that  dire  calamity  must  come,  the  fight- 


APPENDIX.  309 

ing  witt  not  be  along  Mason  and  Dixorfs   line  merely.     IT 

WILL  BE  WITHIN  OUR  OWN  BORDERS,  IN  OUR  OWN  STREETS, 
BETWEEN  THE  TWO  CLASSES  OF  CITIZENS  TO  WHOM  I  HAVE  RE 
FERRED.  TJiose  who  defy  law  and  scout  constitutional  obliga 
tions  will,  if  we  ever  reach  the  arbitrament  of  arms,  FIND  OC 
CUPATION  ENOUGH  AT  HOME.  Nothing  but  the  state  of  Mrs. 
Pierce's  health  would  induce  me  to  leave  the  country  now,  al 
though  it  is  quite  likely  that  my  presence  at  home  would  be  of 
little  service.  I  have  tried  to  impress  upon  our  people,  espe 
cially  in  New  Hampshire  and  Connecticut,  where  the  only  elec 
tions  are  to  take  place  the  coming  spring,  that  while  our  Union 
meetings  are  all  in  the  right  direction  and  well  enough  for  the 
present,  they  will  not  be  worth  the  paper  upon  which  their  reso 
lutions  are  written,  unless  we  can  overthrow  political  abolitionism 
at  the  polls,  and  repeal  the  unconstitutional  and  obnoxious  laws 
which,  in  the  cause  of  "  Personal  Liberty,"  have  been  placed 
on  our  statute  books.  I  shall  look  with  deep  interest  and  not 
without  hope  for  a  decided  change  in  this  relation. 

Ever  and  truly  your  friend, 

FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 
Hon.  JEFF.  DAVIS,  Washington,  D.  C. 


- 


It  was  such  assurances  as  those  given  in  the  above  letter  that 
emboldened  the  Rebel  leaders  to  war  upon  the  government,  and 
there  is  a  singular  harmony  between  the  assertions  of  Pierce 
flrith  regard  to  the  course  of  events  at  the  North  and  the  views 
of  tbe  Rebel  newspapers  at  the  South  before  the  bombardment 
of  Fort  Sumter.  It  will  be  recollected  that  they,  too,  predicted 
civil  war  and  bread  riots  at  the  North,  showing  that  the  assuran 
ces  of  Northern  traitors  had  been  credulously  swallowed.  —  Bos 
ton  Journal:  Supplement,  September  25,  1863. 

The  following  from  the  "  Boston  Journal  "  of  October  19th  and 
20th,  1863,  presents  a  glimpse  of  the  true  attitude  and  charac 
ter  long  possessed  and  maintained  by  this  "  Dear  Friend " 


310  APPENDIX. 

to  whom  Mr.  Pierce  was  then  and  appears  yet  to  be  so  "ever 
and  truly"  attached. 

MORE  OF  JEFF.  DAVIS'S  INTERCEPTED  CORRESPONDENCE. —  The 
following  is  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  Mason  to  Jeff.  Davis,  and 
was  found  among  the  intercepted  correspondence  of  the  latter. 

SELMA,  NEAR  WINCHESTER,  VA.,  j 
September  30,  1856.          | 

MY  DEAR  SIR: — I  have  a  letter  from  Wise,  of  the  27th, 
full  of  spirit.  He  says  the  governments  of  North  and  South 
Carolinas  and  Louisiana  have  already  agreed  to  the  rendezvous 
at  Raleigh,  and  others  will.  (This  in  your  most  private  ear.) 
He  says  further  that  he  had  officially  requested  you  to  exchange 
with  Virginia  on  fair  terms  of  differences,  percussion  for  flint 
muskets.  Don't  know  the  usage  or  power  of  department  in 
such  cases,  but  if  it  can  be  done  soon  by  liberal  constructions  I 
hope  you  will  accede.  Was  there  not  at  the  last  session  an  appro 
priation  for  converting  flint  into  percussion  arms  ?  If  so,  would 
it  not  furnish  good  reason  for  extending  such  facilities  to  the 
States  ?  Virginia  probably  has  more  arms  than  the  other  South 
ern  States,  and  would  divide  in  case  of  need.  In  a  letter  yes 
terday  to  a  committee  in  South  Carolina,  I  gave  it  as  my  judg 
ment,  in  the  event  of  Fremont's  election,  the  South  should  not 
pause,  but  proceed  at  once  to  immediate,  absolute,  and  eternal 
separation.  So  I  am  a  candidate  for  the  first  halter.  Wise  says 
his  accounts  from  Philadelphia  are  cheering  for  old  Buck  in 
Pennsylvania.  I  hope  they  be  not  delusive.  Vale  et  salude. 

MASON'S  LETTER.  —  This  letter  is  one  of  the  most  valuable 
yet  drawn  from  the  treasure-house  of  the  captured  Jeff.  Davis 
correspondence.  It  incontestably  establishes,  what  has  been  ex 
tensively  impressed  upon  the  public  mind,  that  the  Southern 
leaders  were  prepared  to  ante-date  the  Rebellion  four  years,  in 
case  Fremont  had  been  elected.  They  were  resolved  in  1856  to 
break  up  the  Union  the  moment  they  could  not  hold  its  chief 


APPENDIX.  311 

offices.  The  John  Brown  movement  and  other  pretexts  are  thus 
proved  to  be  utterly  devoid  of  any  foundation.  The  letter  also 
shows  that  Floyd's  thieving  exploit  with  the  public  arms  was  not 
original  with  him,  but  had  been  hit  upon  four  years  earlier  by 
Henry  A.  Wise,  and  commended  by  Mason  to  Jeff.  Davis, 
Thus  started  and  patronized,  it  was  not  likely  to  be  forgotten 
whenever  the  time  should  come  for  putting  it  into  execution. 


D.     (Page  301.) 

The  "  New  York  Express  "  says  there  is  not  one  word  of  truth 
in  the  statement  about  confessions,  etc.,  and  gives  the  following 
account  of  this  victim  to  Rebel  vengeance  :  — 

Mr.  Spencer  Kellogg  Brown,  whose  case  is  here  mentioned, 
was  the  son  of  0.  C.  Brown  of  Jefferson  county,  New  York. 
He  enlisted  in  the  army  under  General  Lyon  in  1861,  and  re 
mained  in  active  service  until  he  was  taken  prisoner  off  Port 
Hudson,  August  14th,  1862.  He  had  been  in  the  service  of 
the  government  under  Admiral  Foote,  and  was  on  board  the 
gunboat  Essex,  Commodore  Porter,  when  that  vessel  committed 
such  a  havoc  upon  the  Rebel  ram,  the  Arkansas.  He  was  cap 
tured  as  a  prisoner  of  war  while  destroying  a  Rebel  ferry-boat 
near  Port  Hudson,  August  14th,  and  while  under  protection  of 
a  boat's  crew  of  forty  men,  through  whose  cowardice,  it  is  al 
leged,  he  was  taken  and  made  prisoner.  There  was  an  unnatu 
ral  hatred  felt  toward  all  on  board  the  Essex,  and  young  Kel 
logg  Brown  was  treated  with  such  great  indignity  that  Commo 
dore  Porter  held  five  Rebel  officers  as  hostages  for  his  good  treat 
ment  and  release.  On  the  solemn  assurances  of  Ex-Governor 
Wickliffe  of  Louisiana  that  Brown  should  be  treated  as  a  pris 
oner  of  war,  these  five  men  were  set  free  and  have  been  ex 
changed,  while  a  gallant  officer  is  hung  on  the  unfounded  charge 
of  being  a  spy.  For  over  a  year  he  has  been  kept  as  a  close 


312  APPENDIX. 

prisoner  at  Castle  Thunder,  in  Richmond,  and  to-day  hie  father, 
now  in  this  city  on  business,  hears  through  the  Richmond  pa 
pers,  that  his  son  was  executed  on  Friday  last. 

What  adds  to  this  outrage  and  calamity,  is  the  assurance  of 
General  Halleck,  given  as  late  as  Monday  last  to  the  father  of 
the  murdered  man,  that  his  son  should  be  protected,  as  there  was 
no  ground  for  his  execution,  and  it  was  therefore  impossible. 
Notice  was  given  at  once  by  a  flag  of  truce  that  retaliation 
would  follow  such  an  act  of  brutality ;  but  the  assurance  came 
too  late,  as  the  officer  was  executed  on  Friday  last,  three  days 
before  the  interview. 


E. 

The  following  extracts  of  news,  current  while  this  volume  is  in 
press,  verify  the  old  proverb,  "  It  is  hard  to  teach  old  dogs  new 
tricks;"  also  that  other  proverb  of  sacred  origin,  "Can  the 
Ethiopian  change  his  skin?  etc." 

A  special  despatch  to  the  "  Chicago  Tribune,"  dated  at  Indi 
anapolis,  Indiana,  October  9th,  says,  — 

"  The  Provost  Marshal  at  Richmond,  Indiana,  arrested  nine 
teen  persons  this  morning,  all  armed  with  revolvers,  en  route 
for  Dayton,  to  vote  for  Vallandigham.  After  their  arrest,  two 
of  the  party  confessed  the  facts  and  stated  that  many  more  were 
expected  to  follow.  They  came  to  Richmond  by  different  routes, 
and  each  had  in  his  possesssion  a  rough  map  showing  the  differ 
ent  railroads  leading  through  Indiana,  to  Dayton,  Ohio.  The 
leader  of  the  party  first  gave  his  name  as  John  Brown,  but  af 
terward  said  it  was  Webster  Cassel,  and  that  they  all  hailed 
from  Chicago,  Illinois." 

The  "  Cincinnati  Gazette  "  has  a  special  despatch  from  Chicago 
which  says,  — 

"  The  friends  of  Brough  must  be  on  the  lookout  for  imported 


APPENDIX.  313 

votes.  It  is  believed  that  a  wide-spread  scheme  to  colonize  thou 
sands  of  Copperheads  from  this  State  into  Ohio  is  being  carried 
out.  The  unlawful  and  nefarious  work  is  being  done  under  the 
auspices  and  management  of  the  K.  G.  C.'s.  The  Copperhead 
organs  of  Chicago  and  Springfield  advise  Democrats  to  visit 
Ohio  to  see  that  Vallandigham  has  fair  play.  The  nature  of  the 
visit  and  sort  of  fair  play  meant,  your  readers  can  guess.  Many 
of  those  colonists  from  hereabout  will  strike  for  Cincinnati, 
where  they  expect  to  hide  from  sight  and  swear  in  their  votes. 
The  penalties  for  perjury  or  fear  of  detection  will  not  restrain 
them  from  attemping  to  vote.  Each  is  a  repeater,  and  will  vote 
early  and  often,  but  every  town  under  Copperhead  control  will 
receive  its  share." 

The  "  Philadelphia  Bulletin,"  in  commenting  upon  the  result 
of  the  election,  says,  — 

"  The  canvass  for  governor  in  Pennsylvania  was  one  of  the 
most  spirited  ever  known.  The  Copperhead  managers  resorted 
to  every  trick,  every  deception,  and  every  falsehood  to  carry  the 
State  for  Woodward.  He  himself  abandoned  his  former  ex 
pressed  opinions  in  order  that  he  might  obtain  votes,  and  on  the 
day  before  the  election,  Gen.  McClellan,  in  a  weak  moment,  was 
persuaded  to  abandon  his  very  proper  reserve  and  write  a  letter 
in  favor  of  Woodward,  which,  it  was  hoped,  would  influence  many 
votes.  Colonizing  was  attempted  on  a  stupendous  scale,  and 
even  soldiers  of  the  Rebel  army  were  brought  into  Pennsylvania, 
placed  on  the  assessors'  rolls,  and  their  taxes  paid  by  Demo 
cratic  politicians,  in  order  to  make  a  majority  against  Curtin. 
These,  and  all  their  other,  desperate  expedients,  have  failed  miser 
ably.  Andrew  G.  Curtin  has  been  reflected,  and  we  believe 
that  the  legislature  of  the  State  will  show  a  handsome  Union 
majority." 

If  any  one  can  show  sufficient  cause  why  a  law  should  not 
be,  first  made,  and  then  executed,  defining  as  treason,  and  pun 
ishing  with  the  death-penalty,  every  wilful  corrupting  of  the  civil 

27 


314  APPENDIX. 

ballot,  every  counterfeiting  of  the  national  currency,  and  every 
wilful  fraud  on  the  national  treasury,  by  making  his  reasons 
known,  such  person  will  relieve  a  somewhat  prevalent  and  pain 
ful  sense  of  deficiency  in  our  national  government. 


P. 

The  proposition  proposed  to  be  supported  by  what  is  appended 
here,  is,  that  the  great  majority  of  the  masses  of  the  Jackson- 
Buchanan  party  had  been  so  acted  on,  by  the  principles  and 
practices  of  that  party,  tending  to  deprave  and  despotize  them, 
that  up  to  the  fall  elections  of  1863  they  still  adhered  to  the 
cause  of  Davis  and  their  former  chiefs.  The  following,  from 
the  "  Boston  Journal  "  of  October  16th,  demonstrates  the  real, 
which  was  the  scarcely  disguised,  character  of  a  man,  of  whose 
perjury  and  treason  those  masses  previously  had  all  the  evi 
dence  of  which  the  nature  of  the  case  admitted,  and  for  whom 
they  still  cast  then*  votes  for  governor  in  Ohio  to  the  extent  of 
150,000. 

We  append  a  letter  from  Vallandigham  which  was  recently 
captured  in  Tennessee  among  the  baggage  and  private  papers  of 
the  rebel  officer  to  whom  it  was  addressed.  It  was  the  most 
striking  proof  yet  adduced  of  the  treason  of  the  man  who  has 
been  so  emphatically  repudiated  by  the  people  of  Ohio,  although 
it  is  in  perfect  keeping  with  his  whole  course  since  the  outbreak 
of  the  Rebellion.  We  can  say  that  Ohio  has  made  a  decided  and 
happy  escape  from  being  turned  over  into  the  hands  of  a  traitor. 

DEAR  COLONEL: — Your  kind  note  and  invitation  of  yester 
day  was  this  morning  handed  me  by  your  brother-in-law  who  will 
hand  you  this  in  return.  It  would  give  me  much  pleasure  to 
visit  you  and  your  command  before  leaving  the  Confederacy,  but 
it  is  now  impossible  to  do  so,  as  I  have  made  arrangements  to 
start  this  A.  M.  with  the  earliest  train  for  Wilmington. 


APPENDIX.  315 

You  surmise  correctly,  when  you  say  that  YOU  BELIEVE  ME 

TO     BE     THE     FRIEND     OF     THE      SOUTH     IN     HER     STRUGGLE     FOR 

FREEDOM.  My  feelings  have  been  publicly  expressed  in  my  own 
country,  in  that  quotation  from  Lord  Chatham  —  "  My  Lords, 
you  cannot  conquer  America"  There  is  not  a  drop  of  Puritan 
blood  in  my  veins.  I  HATE,  DESPISE  AND  DEFY  THE  TY 
RANNICAL  government  which  has  sent  me  among  you,  for  my 
opinion's  sake,  and  shall  NEVER  GIVE  IT  MY  SUPPORT  IN  ITS 
CRUSADE  UPON  YOUR  INSTITUTIONS.  But  you  are  mistaken 
when  you  say  there  are  but  few  such  in  the  United  States, 
North.  THOUSANDS  ARE  THERE  who  would  speak  out  but  for 
the  military  despotism  that  strangles  them. 

Although  the  contest  has  been,  and  will  continue  to  be,  a 
bloody  one,  YOU  HAVE  BUT  TO  PERSEVERE  and  THE  VICTORY 

WILL    SURELY    BE    YOURS.       YOU     MUST    STRIKE   HOME  !       The    de- 

fensive  policy  lengthens  the  contest.  The  shortest  road  to  peace 
is  the  boldest  one.  You  CAN  HAVE  YOUR  OWN  TERMS  BY  GAIN 
ING  THE  BATTLE  ON  YOUR  ENEMY'S  SOIL. 

Accept  my  kind  regard  for  your  personal  welfare,  and  sin 
cere  thanks  for  your  kind  wishes  in  my  behalf,  and  HOPING  AND 

PRAYING  FOR  THE  ULTIMATE  CAUSE  IN  WHICH  YOU  ARE  FIGHT 
ING,  believe  me  as  ever  your  friend, 

C.  L.  YALLANDIGHAM. 
Col.  D.  D.  INSHALL,  8th  Ala.  Yols. 

A  few  weeks  earlier,  upwards  of  50,000  of  the  same  masses 
in  Maine  gave  their  votes  for  a  gubernatorial  candidate  that  stood 
pledged  to  cooperate  with  Yallandigham  in  carrying  out  his  prin 
ciples  and  policy  ;  and  on  the  same  day  of  the  election  in  Ohio, 
240,865  of  the  same  depraved  and  despotized  masses,  out  of  a 
whole  voting  population  of  515,003  in  Pennsylvania,  put  forth 
their  utmost  effort  to  elect  for  that  State  a  governor  of  the  same 
principles  and  aims  with  Yallandigham. 

Reverses  to  the  national  arms,  or  the  desperate  exertions  of 


316  APPENDIX, 

their  old  leaders,  were  and  still  are,  liable  from  the  old  stock  of 
that  party  to  raise  those  numbers  to  ruling  majorities  in  either 
and  each  of  the  above-named  States,  as  they  did  last  year  in 
New  York  and  Indiana. 

Thus  near  had  Democracy  in  America,  and  the  last  hope  of  a 
tyrant-ridden  world,  been  brought  to  extinction,  by  the  operation 
of  the  principles  and  practices  of  the  above-named  political  par 
ty,  acting  on  the  masses  of  the  population  that  had  been  directly 
and  fully  under  their  influence. 

In  the  light  of  recent  developments,  we  will  here  glance  at 
another  source  of  peril  to  the  same  cause  that  arose  from  a  some 
what  different  quarter.  The  following,  from  the  "  Portland  Cou 
rier  "  of  October  22d,  1863,  is  a  fit  and  reliable  commentary  on 
the  letter  that  succeeds  :  — 

Everybody  who  reads  the  "Boston  Journal/'  knows  that  Bur. 
leigh,  who  writes  the  New  York  and  Saratoga  gossip  for  that  pa 
per,  has  always  been  partial  to  General  McClellan,  and  has  writ 
ten  many  sentences  in  his  favor.  The  late  letter  of  General 
McClellan,  however,  has  wrought  a  change,  and  Burleigh  speaks 
of  it  as  follows  :  — 

The  political  letter  of  Gen.  McClellan,  intending  to  aid  in  the 
defeat  of  Governor  Curtin  of  Pennsylvania,  has  been  read  with 
profound  sorrow  by  thousands  of  his  friends.  When  it  was  an 
nounced  that  such  a  letter  had  been  written  by  him,  few  believed 
it.  His  long  silence  under  the  heavy  charges  preferred  against 
him  by  the  Congressional  Committee  —  his  patient  waiting  under 
what  many  supposed  were  wrongs  inflicted  upon  him  —  his  man 
ly  submission  to  tho  decree  which  condemned  him  to  semi-dis 
grace  —  the  belief  that  in  due  time  he  would  vindicate  himself 
—  gave  him  a  strong  hold  on  the  public  sympathy.  His  silence 
when  his  military  ability  and  honor  were  assailed,  and  the 
promptness  with  which  he  defends  his  political  opinions  are  not 
the  least  remarkable  things  in  this  letter.  But  the  character  of 


APPENDIX.  317 

the  letter  itself  has  probably  done  the  work  for  Gen.  McClellan, 
It  justifies  what  his  enemies  have  long  charged  upon  him  in  his 
method  of  conducting  the  war.  He  comes,  uncalled  for,  a  vol 
unteer  witness  in  Court  to  aid  his  enemies,  and  to  enable  them  to 
do  what,  without  his  efforts,  they  could  never  have  done.  He 
shows  that  his  heart  was  never  in  the  war ;  that  he  intended  to 
carry  on  a  defensive,  and  not  an  offensive  war ;  that  he  would 
defend  the  capital  and  all  the  soil  held  by  the  loyal  North,  beat 
back  the  Rebels,  in  every  attempt  to  advance  out  of  the  seceding 
States,  to  hold  them  in  check  till  the  Northern  elections  should 
change  the  administration,  and  so  secure  peace  by  compromise, 
and  not  by  the  sword.  The  letter  justifies  the  President  in  the 
removal  of  McClellan  from  the  command  of  the  army.  All  tes 
timony  concedes  that  McClellan  was  a  great  favorite  with  the 
President.  While  his  headquarters  were  in  Washington  the 
President  saw  him  every  day,  and  passed  most  of  his  evenings 
with  him.  He  generally  called  him  "  Georgie,"  and  was  tender 
ly  attached  to  him.  To  give  him  up  cost  him  a  long  and  painful 
struggle.  It  was  not  until  he  was  thoroughly  convinced  that 
the  policy  of  Gen.  McClellan,  which  he  would  not  change,  was 
irreconcilable  with  the  preservation  of  our  national  life,  that  he 
gave  the  order  for  his  removal.  Such  a  letter  as  this  of 
McClellan  would  have  killed  Junius. 

ORANGE,  NEW  JERSEY,  Oct.  12th,  1863. 
HON.  CHARLES  J.  BIDDLE. 

DEAR  SIR  : — My  attention  has  been  called  to  an  article  in  the 
"Philadelphia  Press,"  asserting  that  I  had  written  to  the  manag 
ers  of  the  Democratic  meeting  at  Allentown,  disapproving  of  the 
objects  of  the  meeting,  and  that  if  I  voted  and  spoke,  it  would 
be  in  favor  of  Governor  Curtin. 

I  am  informed  that  similar  assertions  have  been  made  through 
out  the  State.     It  has  been  my  earnest  endeavor  heretofore  to 
avoid  participation  in  party  politics,  and  I  had  determined  to  ad- 
27* 


318  APPENDIX. 

here  to  this  course  ;  but  it  is  obvious  that  I  cannot  long  maintain 
silence  under  such  misrepresentations.  I  therefore  request  you  to 
deny  that  I  have  written  any  such  letter,  or  entertained  any  such 
views  as  those  attributed  to  me  in  the  "  Philadelphia  Press." 

I  desire  to  state  clearly  and  distinctly  that  having  some  few 
days  ago  had  a  full  conversation  with  Judge  Woodward,  I  find 
that  our  views  agree,  and  I  regard  his  election  as  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania  called  for  by  the  interest  of  the  nation. 

I  understand  Judge  Woodward  to  be  in  favor  of  the  prosecu- 
aon  of  the  war  with  all  the  means  at  the  command  of  the  loyal 
States,  until  the  military  power  of  the  Rebellion  is  destroyed. 

I  understand  him  to  be  of  the  opinion  that  while  war  is  waged 
with  all  possible  decision  and  energy,  the  policy  directing  it 
should  be  in  consonance  with  the  principles  of  humanity  and  civ 
ilization,  working  no  injury  to  private  rights  and  property  not  de 
manded  by  military  necessity  and  recognized  by  military  law 
among  civilized  nations.  And  finally, 

I  understand  him  to  agree  with  me  in  the  opinion  that  the 
sole  great  objects  of  the  war  are  the  restoration  of  the  Union  of 
the  nation,  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution  and  the  suprem 
acy  of  the  laws  of  the  country. 

Believing  that  our  opinions  entirely  agree  upon  these  points, 
I  would,  were  it  in  my  power,  give  to  Judge  Woodward  my 
voice  and  my  vote. 

I  am,  very  respectfully,  yours, 
GEORGE  B. 


Three  historic  characters  here  present  themselves.  Judge 
Woodward,  Gen.  McClellan,  and  President  Lincoln. 

Judge  Woodward,  but  for  his  insignificance,  might  with  pro 
priety  be  termed  James  Buchanan  No.  2,  and  appears  justly  to 
merit  all  the  increase  of  odium  that  attaches  to  the  character  that 
term  describes  at  the  present,  in  comparison  with  a  former  day. 
There  appears  to  have  been  scarcely  anything,  short  of  the  overt 


APPENDIX.  319 

act  of  treason  which  would  have  condemned  him  to  the  gallows, 
which  he  has  not  done,  in  the  fore-front  of  the  Rebel  sympathiz 
ers,  to  aid  the  traitor's  cause.  Of  what  he  had  said  and  done  in 
this  direction,  he  had  swallowed,  contradicted,  and  undone  noth 
ing,  more  than  would  have  been  swallowed,  contradicted,  and  un 
done  by  any  man  of  his  political  school,  to  gain  the  votes  of  men 
less  traitorous  than  himself. 

All  this  was  perfectly  known  to  McClellan.  It  was  known  to 
him  that  the  positions  occupied  by  Woodward  and  Vallandigham, 
and  the  measures  resorted  to  to  sustain  these  positions  at  the  same 
time  in  the  several  States  of  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania,  were  sub 
stantially  parallel.*  And  yet  McClellan  could  not  restrain  him. 
self  from  coming  out  at  the  last  decisive  hour,  in  a  carefully 
worded  but  desperate  effort  to  throw  Pennsylvania  and  the  Un 
ion  back  into  the  hands  of  such  men  as  Judge  Wood  ward,  t 
James  Buchanan,  Isaac  Toucey,  John  B.  Floyd,  Franklin 
Pierce,  Jefferson  Davis,  and  to  subject  Pennsylvania  and  the 
Union  again  to  the  operation  of  the  political  principles,  which 
these  names  represent. 

From  July  27th,  18G1,  to  November  9th,  1862,  George  B. 
McClellan  commanded  the  army  of  the  Potomac,  and,  during 
several  months  of  this  time,  the  armies  of  the  United  States. 
When  first  called  to  that  position  of  unparalleled  importance  and 

*  See  Appendix  fr.^~ 

t  Judge  Woodward,  the  opposition  candidate  for  Governor  of  Pennsylva 
nia,  lias  been^  convicted,  on  the  strongest  authority,  of  having  publicly  de 
clared  in  the  spring  of  1861  that  if  these  States  are  to  be  separated  he  hoped 
Pennsylvania  would  go  with  the  South,  which  was  then  about  to  take 
arms  to  break  down  the  government. 

Mr.  George  W.  Hart  of  Philadelphia,  always  a  Democrat  hitherto,  says 
in  a  letter  that  he  travelled  three  days  with  Judge  Woodward,  the  Demo 
cratic  candidate  for  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  and  heard  him  say  often 
that  this  "  was  an  unconstitutional  war  and  an  abolition  war,  and  that  he 
had  no  interest  whatever  in  the  result,  let  this  result  be  what  it  might ;  that 
it  was  a  contest  in  which  the  North  could  gain  neither  credit  nor  honor,  and 
this  he  believed  would  be  the  verdict  of  history."  —  Boston  Journal,  Sept. 
26  and  Oct.  3d,  1863. 


320  APPENDIX. 

responsibility,  he  was  hailed  with  a  universal  welcome.  The 
talents  he  displayed  in  organizing  a  vast  army,  and  in  inspiring 
his  men  with  hope  and  confidence,  commanded  universal  admira 
tion.  The  loyal  millions  breathed  freer  at  his  advent,  introduced 
and  endorsed  as  he  was  by  the  retiring  veteran  of  peerless  re 
nown,  who  had  preceded  him.  The  friends  of  Free-government 
throughout  the  world  were  glad  that  their  cause  had  fallen  into  so 
able  hands. 

Had  the  sun  stood  still,  and  all  human  events  and  actions  sus 
pended  progress,  at  the  point  at  which  General  McClellan  ma 
tured  the  recruiting  and  organizing  of  his  army,  then  might  his 
name  have  remained  illustrious,  —  at  least,  with  some  dawning 
beams  about  it.  But  on  no  other  condition  could  he  be  spared 
the  necessity  of  acting  out,  on  a  transcendently  important  and 
conspicuous  arena,  the  principles  of  his  heart. 

What  was  the  record  ?  Delay  in  advancing  to  Manassas  — 
defeated  by  Fabian  tactics  —  delay  at  Yorktown —  80,000  men 
consumed  by  the  heat  of  summer  in  the  malarious  swamps  of  the 
Chickahominy,  and  in  the  overwhelming  assaults  which  his  de 
lays  obtained  for  him — Pope  and  his  army  immolated  at  the  sec 
ond  battle  of  Bull  Run,  through  the  obstinate  tardiness,  or  wilful 
refusal  of  McClellan  and  his  crony  commanders,  to  forward  the 
needed  succor  as  commanded.  Next  came  the  terrible  day  of 
Antietam,  on  which  McClellan  refrained  from  firing  a  shot,  more 
than  was  indispensable  to  prevent  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  and 
Washington  from  falling  immediately  into  the  enemy's  hands. 

What  does  all  this  mean?  —  the  astonished,  bewildered,  dis 
heartened  and  stricken  loyalists'  in  this  country,  and  the  friends 
of  liberal  government  throughout  the  world,  have  been  asking; 
and  never,  till  George  B.  McClellan  signed  and  sent  that  letter, 
to  turn  if  possible  the  Pennsylvania  election  in  favor  of  the  Rebel 
sympathizers,*  has  light  enough  been  accumulated  to  enable  any 

*  PHILADELPHIA,  Nov.  11.  Judges  Lourie,  Woodward  and  Thompson  of 
the  Supremo  Court  of  Pennsylvania,  in  session  at  Pittsburg,  being  a  majori- 


APPENDIX.  321 

one  who  was  at  liberty  to  do  so,  reliably  to  interpret  this  page  of 
appalling  history. 

ty  of  the  Court,  gave,  a  decision  on  Monday  relative  to  certain  drafted  men, 
in  effect  declaring  the  conscription  act  unconstitutional. 

THE  RIOTS  IN  THE  COAL  DISTRICTS.  —  A  special  correspondent  of  the 
Philadelphia  Press  -writes  from  Mauch  Chunk,  Pa.,  on  the  7th  instant,  as 
follows :  — 

"  Several  accounts  appeared  during  the  last  few  days  in  Philadelphia  and 
New  York  papers  of  the  '  riots '  in  this  region,  and  the  murder  of  Mr.  G.  K. 
Smith,  one  of  our  best  and  most  valuable  citizens.  The  accounts  given  are, 
as  far  as  they  go,  substantially  correct.  The  murders  committed,  however, 
are  not '  riots,'  but  the  work  of  assassins,  extensively  organized  throughout 
the  coal  region ;  and  the  leading  Copperheads  are  the  chief  instigators. 

"  The  murderers  are  all  Irish,  organized  under  the  name  of '  Buckshots '  for 
the  avowed  purpose  of  resisting  the  draft.  They  number  probably  several 
thousand  in  the  mines  of  Beaver  Meadow,  Colerain,  Jeanesville,  Hazleton, 
Audenried,  Yorktown,  Frenchtown,  Spring  Mountain  and  Mount  Pleasant, 
They  are  all  armed  either  with  shot-guns,  rifles,  musket?,  or  revolvers.  The 
most  notorious  Copperheads  of  our  place  counselled  them  to  arm  themselves 
'to  defend  their  liberties,'  and  to  '  resist  the  tyranny  of  the  Lincoln  despot 
ism.'  The  beasts,  duped  by  these  demagogues,  declare  their  determination  to 
drive  out  of  the  mines  every  one  who  is  not  of  their  own  stripe ;  and  a  number 
of  Welshmen,  Englishmen,  Protestant  Irish,  Germans,  and  Americans  have 
been  waylaid  and  murdered  by  them  during  the  last  two  or  three  months. 
About  two  months  ago,  one  of  these  Buckshots  was  arrested  near  Beaver 
Meadow,  and  lodged  in  our  jail,  on  a  charge  of  assault  and  battery  with  in 
tent  to  kill.  On  the  following  night,  over  one  hundred  Buckshots  marched 
into  town  well  armed,  arriving  here  about  one  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing,  surrounded  the  jail,  and  rescued  the  prisoner.  No  effort  was  made  by 
the  civil  authorities  to  arrest  the  offenders,  although  the  grand  jury,  last 
month,  presented  the  names  of  a  number  of  persons  who  participated  in  the 
outrage.  The  district  attorney,  being  of  the  most  malignant  stamp  of  Cop 
perheads,  refused,  and  continues  to  refuse,  any  steps  calculated  to  bring 
these  villains  to  justice.  The  high  sheriff  of  the  county,  it  is  believed, 
would  prefer  doing  his  duty ;  but  he  being  in  the  Copperhead  boat  cannot  do 
so.  He  has  made  no  effort  to  raise  a  posse  comilatus  for  the  arrest  of  these 
or  any  other  outlaws  in  our  county.  Even  one  of  tho  associate  judges  of 
our  court,  and  leading  officer  of  one  of  the  most  prosperous  and  respectable 
local  corporations,  it  is  said,  discountenanced  any  effort  to  arrest  '  Buck 
shots,'  simply  because  they  (the  Democracy)  '  need  their  votes,  and  must  not 
offend  them.' 

"  Thus  encouraged  by  our  local  authorities,  these  outlaws  frequently  de 
clared  their  determination  to  not  only  kill  every  officer  who  would  undertake 


322  APPENDIX. 

In  the  war  of  the  American  Revolution,  Great  Britain  failed 
to  suMue  the  revolted  colonies  for  lack  of  military  commanders 
who  heartily  undertook  the  task  assigned  them.  The  policy  of 
McClellan  and  of  the  political  school  to  which  he  lent  himself 
appears  fc>  have  been,  to  defeat  the  efforts  of  the  present  ad 
ministration  through  the  operation  of  a  similar  cause,  to  keep  the 
losses,  exhaustion,  and  bloodshed  of  the  present  war  about  equal 
ly  divided  between  the  two  contending  sections,  call  it  a  drawn 
game,  and  submit  the  questions  at  issue  back  to  the  operation 
of  the  same  causes  that  first  brought  them  under  the  arbitration 
of  the  sword !  In  other  words,  that  policy  was,  so  to  conduct 
the  existing  war,  that  its  cost,  its  sufferings,  and  its  slaughtered 
thousands,  should  just  avail  as  a  judicious  blood-letting  io  re 
duce  the  Southern  leaders  to  the  position  they  occupied  before 
they  bolted  from  their  fellow  partisans  at  the  Charleston  Conven 
tion,  and  thus  enable  the  old  political  party  to  revalidate  its  old 
usurpation,  and  handle  its  old  opponents  with  all  the  greater  ease 
by  as  much  as  they  had  been  impoverished  and  decimated  in 
the  war !  ! 

Let  him,  if  such  an  one  there  be,  who  is  competent  to  the 
task,  do  justice  to  the  events,  and  fitly  characterize  the  actors 
presented  on  this  page  of  history ! 

If  General  George  B.  McClellan  failed  to  fulfil  the  expecta 
tions  entertained  of  him  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Union 
forces,  or  as  Commander  of  the  magnificent  army  of  the  Poto 
mac,  those  expectations  appear  to  have  been  disappointed,  not 
because  he  lacked  the  power,  but  because  he  lacked  the  will, 
that  was  requisite  for  their  fulfilment.  The  reticence  with  which 
he  suppressed  his  real  sentiments  and  aims,  and  the  success 
ful  address  with  which  he  kept  the  administration  at  his  chariot- 
to  enforce  the  draft,  but  also  to  put  out  of  the  way  every  one  suspected  of 
sympathy  with  the  government.  They  openly  declare  now  their  determi 
nation  to  secure  entire  control  of  all  the  mines,  and  to  stop  the  shipment  of 
coal,  and  thus  deprive  the  navy  of  this  indispensable  article."  —  Boston  Jour 
nal,  Nov.  12th,  1863. 


APPENDIX.  323 

wheel,  while  he  carried  those  sentiments  into  effect,  and  advanced 
those  aims  towards  their  final  achievement,  on  so  vast  a  scale,  in 
doctrinating  his  generals  and  attaching  to  himself  the  rank  and 
file  of  his  army,  prove  General  McClellan  to  be  well  endowed 
with  executive,  ability  to  accomplish  anything  that  he  has  tho 
moral  elevation  to  attempt. 

The  peril  that  arose,  to  the  cause  of  popular  government  in 
general  and  to  the  United  States  in  particular,  from  the  course 
of  General  McClellan  while  in  command  of  United  States  forces, 
may  be  traced  to  its  primal  source  in  the  causes  that  had  despo- 
tized  the  masses  of  the  Jackson-Buchanan  party.  He  is  an  emi 
nent  individual  specimen  of  what  elsewhere  appears  in  depraved 
masses.  But  it  is  another  source  of  peril  displayed  in  this 
connection,  to  which  we  here  glance  briefly. 

Whatever  was  wanting  in  tenderness  was  made  up  in  strength, 
in  the  composition  of  that  man  who  could  see  more  than  one 
hundred  thousand  of  his  fellow-citizens  consumed  before  his  face 
in  fifteen  months  by  disease  and  casualties,  from  the  ranks  under 
his  command, — to  say  nothing  of  tho  nearly  equal  waste  that  oc 
curred  simultaneously  just  across  the  line  in  his  front,  —  and  per 
sist  in  regarding  the  whole  as  an  ordinary,  and  perhaps-to-be-re 
peated  sacrifice  to  the  Moloch  of  his  political  party ;  and,  at  the 
end  put  forth  his  earnest  effort  to  prevent  the  disaster  from  avail 
ing  for  any  higher  end.  Far  less  extensive  views  than  General 
McClellan  had,  of  the  disaster  and  sorrow  brought  upon  their 
countrymen  by  the  nefarious  originators  of  this  war,  had  availed 
to  turn  the  judgments  and  the  hearts  of  tens  of  thousands  of  Mc 
Clellan  's  fellow-partisans  who  went  into  the  war  as  honest  and  as 
earnest  in  their  allegiance  to  his  political  party  as  himself.  But 
out  of  it  all  McClellan  came  with  an  obdurate  few,  unable  to  see 
any  object  to  be  accomplished  by  the  incomputable  costs,  higher 
or  holier  than  the  restoration  of  the  policy  of  Pierce,  Buchanan, 
and  Toucey  with  its  attendant  benefits,  to  "the  interest  of 
the  nation" — unable  to  aspire  to  any  higher  or  holier  political 


324  APPENDIX. 

vocation  than,  with  men  like  these,  to  grind  in  the  prison- 
house  of  that  foul  sect,  with  a  view  to  keeping  in  subjection 
under  them  all  those  of  their  remaining  fellow-citizens  who  aspire 
to  the  attainment  of  a  political  destiny  less  ignominious  than 
their  own.  "  Join  our  political  party,  and  follow  the  leaders  or 
be  left  out  in  the  cold  "  —  "  to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils  "  — 
is  the  language  with  which  they  prepare  to  greet  us,  the  moment 
that  any  kind  or  amount  of  political  fraud  or  villany  enables 
them  to  elect  the  candidate  of  their  nominating. 

That  the  inaugural  address  of  President  Lincoln  seemed  defi 
cient  in  boldness,  was  attributed  at  the  time  to  a  sagacious,  but 
not  the  less  decided,  prudence.  That  no  prompt,  decisive  steps 
were  taken  to  arrest  the  progress  of  insurgent  fortifications 
around  Charleston,  and  to  reinforce  Fort  Sumter,  sickened  the 
loyal  heart.  That  seventeen  months  of  the  war,  with  their  slaugh 
ter  and  their  cost,  went  by  without  the  administration  having 
adopted  any  principle  or  policy  that  appeared  adequate  to  secure 
a  beneficial  result,  or  even  to  end  the  fight,  appalled  the  thought 
ful  friends  of  popular  government  in  this  country  and  in  Europe. 
It  was  presumed  that  the  diplomatic  member  of  President  Lin 
coln's  Cabinet,  with  undue  influence  was  inducing  his  chief  to 
found  his  plans  and  expectations,  not  so  much  on  the  rock  of 
any  particular  civil  truths  or  principles,  as  on  the  fathomless 
abyss  of  diplomacy.  That  President  Lincoln,  during  much  of  this 
time  was  spending  his  evenings  in  the  fascinating  company  of  a 
man,  who,  after  passing  through  the  war-experience  of  that  com 
manding  general,  would  put  his  name  to  such  a  letter  as  was  ad 
dressed  to  Charles  J.  Biddle  on  the  eve  of  the  late  Pennsylva 
nia  election,  was  a  calamity,  a  tremendous  peril,  —  a  verging 
of  the  car  of  Liberty  along  the  brink  of  chaos,  —  which  free 
dom's  friends  at  the  time  were  spared  the  misery  of  contem 
plating.  Now  that  we  see  it  in  the  light  of  accomplished  facts, 
it  reminds  one  of  Marshal  Grouchy  on  the  eve  of  Waterloo,  in 
conference  with  the  emissary  of  the  Allies.  To  subject  him- 


APPENDIX.  325 

self  and  his  country's  cause  to  the  effect  of  such  a  perilous 
temptation  displayed  President  Lincoln's  sad  trait.  To  extricate 
himself  and  his  cause  from  the  impending  ruin,  almost  unharmed 
—  to  rebound  into  the  line  of  clear,  decisive,  necessary,  and  glori 
ously  successful  policy  which  his  former  fascinator  is  now  strug 
gling  to  resist,  displays  President  Lincoln's  redeeming  excellence 
in  its  tardy  but  ultimate  ascendency,  —  displays  perhaps  the 
<k  grace  of  God  that  was  given  unto  him"  in  answer  to  the 
prayers  of  God's  imperilled,  believing  people. 


G. 

In  a  letter  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Ohio,  acknowledging 
the  receipt  of  a  resolution  of  thanks  from  that  body  to  the  Army 
of  the  Cumberland  and  its  officers,  Gen.  Rosecrans  employs  the 
following  emphatic  language  :  — 

"  This  is  indeed  a  war  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws  —  nay,  for  national  existence  against  those  who 
have  despised  our  honest  friendship,  deceived  our  just  hopes,  and 
driven  us  to  defend  our  country  and  oUr  homes.  By  foul  and 
wilful  slanders  on  our  motives  and  intentions,  persistently  repeat 
ed,  they  have  arrayed  against  us  our  own  fellow-citizens,  bound 
to  us  by  the  triple  ties  of  consanguinity,  geographical  position, 
and  commercial  interest. 

"  Let  no  man  among  us  be  base  enough  to  forget  this,  or  fool 
enough  to  trust  an  oligarchy  of  traitors  to  their  friends,  to  civil 
liberty,  and  human  freedom.  Voluntary  exiles  from  home  and 
friends,  for  the  defence  and  safety  of  all,  we  long  for  the  time 
when  gentle  peace  shall  again  spread  her  wings  over  our  land ; 
but  we  know  no  such  blessing  is  possible  while  the  unjust  and 
arbitrary  power  of  the  Rebel  leaders  confronts  and  threatens  us, 
Crafty  as  the  fox,  cruel  as  the  tiger,  they  cried  '  No  coercion,' 
while  preparing  to  strike  us.  Bully-like  they  proposed  to  fight 
us  because  they  said  they  could  whip  five  to  one ;  and  now, 
28 


326  APPENDIX. 

when  driven  back,  they  whine  out  '  no  invasion,'  and  promise  us 
of  the  West  permission  to  navigate  the  Mississippi,  if  we  will  be 
'  good  boys,'  and  do  as  they  bid  us. 

"  Whenever  they  have  the  power,  they  drive  before  them  into 
their  ranks  the  Southern  people,  and  they  would  also  drive  us. 
Trust  them  not.  Were  they  able,  they  would  invade  and  destroy 
us  without  mercy.  Absolutely  assured  of  these  things,  I  am 
amazed  that  any  one  could  think  of  '  peace  on  any  terms.'  He 
who  entertains  the  sentiment  is  fit  only  to  be  a  slave ;  he  who 
utters  it  at  this  time  is,  moreover,  a  traitor  to  his  country,  who 
deserves  the  scorn  and  contempt  of  all  honorable  men.  When 
the  power  of  the  unscrupulous  Rebel  leaders  is  removed,  and  the 
people  are  free  to  consider  and  act  for  their  own  interests,  which 
are  common  with  ours  under  this  government,  there  will  be  no 
great  difficulty  in  fraternization."  —  Boston  Journal,  Feb.  Wth, 
1863 

Of  the  above  extract  from  Gen.  Rosecrans's  letter  it  may  be 
said  that  an  equal  amount  of  sagacious  statesmanship  and  patri 
otic  faithfulness  has  not  been  expressed  in  the  same  space,  — 
has  not  been  compressed  into  any  one  document,  —  (it  may  al 
most  be  said)  has  not  been  expressed  in  all  the  documents  and 
speeches  which  the  present  war  has  brought  out.  It  presents 
Gen.  Rosecrans  himself,  simply,  unsubvertcd,  unsophisticated, 
an  American  Democrat  in  the  true  and  proper  meaning  of  the 
term. 

The  following,  translated  from  the  "  Courrierdes  Etats  Uhis," 
which  professes  to  have  obtained  it  from  a  Cincinnati  correspon 
dent,  represents  Gen.  Rosecrans  in  the  shape  to  which  ho  would 
be  reduced,  and  in  the  attitude  and  light  in  which  he  would  be 
placed  by  his  spiritual  advisers,  the  emissaries  of  the  "  decrepit 
giant  "  who,  as  seen  from  Bedford  jail  two  hundred  years  ago, 
was  "biting  his  nails"  for  lack  of  power  to  commit  the 
devastation  he  desired ;  provided  said  emissaries  succeed  to 
their  minds  in  accomplishing  the  mission  on  which  they  have 
been  sent. 


APPENDIX.  327 

"  Persons  who  are  on  intimate  terms  with  Gen.  Rosecrans  de 
clare  that  he  is  greatly  discouraged  about  the  war.  This  is  not 
becau«e  he  considers  the  Southern  armies  invincible,  but  because 
he  believes  that  the  seceded  States  can  never  be  brought  back  by 
the  rigorous  policy  which  the  government  has  adopted.  He  has 
never  taken  any  part  in  the  proceedings  of  Andrew  Johnson,  the 
military  governor  of  Tennessee,  who  has  succeeded  in  converting 
to  Secession  all  people  who  had  any  hopes  of  the  Union.  Him 
self  perfectly  disinterested,  he  looks  with  disgust  upon  the 
shameful  traffic  which  is  going  on  under  the  mask  of  patriotism. 
When  he  looks  around  him,  he  sees  men  moved  by  all  sorts  of 
motives,  more  or  less  decent,  except  honor  and  the  love  of  coun 
try.  Some  are  fighting  from  ambition,  others  from  avarice ;  to 
the  latter  the  conquest  of  country  means  only  pillage  and  cheap 
cotton  ;  the  former  are  jealous  of  their  superiors  and  their 
equals,  and  are  delighted  with  any  reverse  which  may  overtake 
them. 

"  Profoundly  honest  and  religious,  Rosecrans  regards  these 
spectacles  with  bitter  aversion.  His  religious  feelings  have  grown 
upon  him  in  proportion  to  the  excesses  and  intrigues  which  he  is 
impotent  to  prevent;  and,  in  mystical  hopes  of  another  world,  he 
seeks  relief  from  the  corruptions  of  the  present.  He  no  longer 
fights  with  any  ardor,  but  simply  from  a  sense  of  duty,  consider 
ing  each  victory  a  useless  waste  of  blood.  He  has  no  confi 
dence  in  his  successes,  considering  that  they  are  followed  by  the 
swoop  of  birds  of  prey  whose  rapacity  makes  hopeless  the  pacifi 
cation  of  the  country.  .  .  .  ,  All  these  details  come  to  me  from 
a  person  very  dear  to  Rosecrans,  to  whom  the  General  wrote  that 
he  saw  in  the  defeat  of  Chickamauga  the  finger  of  God." — Bos- 
ton  Journal,  Oct.  Vlth,  1863. 


328  APPENDIX. 

TO  THE  BAFFLED   DESPOTS   OF  THE  SOUTH. 


YE  are  going  down  whence  ye  rose  at  first, 
From  the  face  of  the  Land  your  lust  has  cursed  ; 
From  the  light  of  your  hope,  and  your  lied-for  crown, 
In  darkness  and  blood  ye  are  going  down. 

Ye  chose  you  a  corner  whereon  to  rear 

The  throne  of  your  power,  a  realm  of  fear  ; 

Ye  swore  to  rule  with  a  despot's  rod 

O'er  the  Land,  the  People,  and  the  Saints  of  God. 

The  sable  sons  of  a  heathen  race 
Long  bowed  to  your  mandates  with  abject  grace  ; 
And  your  slaveless  kindred,  bereft  of  dower, 
Have  quailed  and  bled  'neath  your  crushing  power, 

r  •*<  *•  "*<y 

Till  the  voice  of  their  blood,  from  the  wreaking  sod, 
Has  entered  the  ears  of  an  incensed  God, 
And  beneath  the  blight  of  his  burning  frown, 
To  the  despot's  doom  ye  are  going  down. 

"  Hell  from  beneath  is  moved  for  thee,* 

The  despot  dead  thy  coming  greet,  — 
'  Art  thou  also  become  weak  as  we  ?  ' 

The  defunct  kings  of  the  nations  shriek. 

"  In  glory  each  in  his  house  they  lie, 

But  thou,  cast  out,  art  keenly  scanned, 
And  trampled  down  by  each  passer-by, 
Because  thou  liast  destroyed  thy  land. 

"  The  whole  earth  is  at  rest  once  more, 

The  trees  and  the  fields  rejoice  'gainst  thee." 
And  wide  and  deep  as  Ocean's  roar, 
Goes  up  the  song  of  slaves  set  free. 

The  despots  slain  mid  Freedom's  Home, 

The  boldest,  bloodiest  of  their  kind, 
We  trust  mav  be  the  last  that  come, 

Their  shackles  on  our  limbs  to  bind. 

JANUARY  16,  1864. 

*  Isaiah,  xlv. 


RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

I    This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

ks  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


NOV1  6)9660(1 


—  RECEIVE 


LD  21A-40m-4,'63 
(D647lslO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


LD  21A-50m-9,'58 
(6889slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


/o 


-3 


